Does the .net framework provides async methods for working with the file-system?

Question

Does the .net framework has an async built-in library/assembly which allows to work with the file system (e.g. File.ReadAllBytes, File.WriteAllBytes)?

Or do I have to write my own library using the async Methods of StreamReader and StreamWriter?

Something like this would be pretty nice:

var bytes = await File.ReadAllBytes("my-file.whatever"); 

Answer 1

Does the .net framework has an async built-in library/assembly which allows to work with the file system

Yes. There are async methods for working with the file system but not for the helper methods on the static File type. They are on FileStream.

So, there's no File.ReadAllBytesAsync but there's FileStream.ReadAsync, etc. For example:

byte[] result; using (FileStream stream = File.Open(@"C:\file.txt", FileMode.Open)) {     result = new byte[stream.Length];     await stream.ReadAsync(result, 0, (int)stream.Length); } 

Answer 2

It already does it. See for example Using Async for File Access MSDN article.

private async Task WriteTextAsync(string filePath, string text) {     byte[] encodedText = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(text);      using (FileStream sourceStream = new FileStream(filePath,         FileMode.Append, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None,         bufferSize: 4096, useAsync: true))     {         await sourceStream.WriteAsync(encodedText, 0, encodedText.Length);     }; }