Areas to think of
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When you open a file, you specify how you plan to work with it (Read/Write/Both)
as well as whether to allow other processes to read or write the file while open.
You have to be careful with this, because you could break other processes with the wrong locking settings
either by keeping them from accessing the file, or
by altering the file while they are accessing it.
The same principal can work in reverse on you.
For instance, if you are reading a file while allowing other processes to write to the file, you could run into a situation where the file changes between reads.
You may also find that you are denied access to a file due to the constraints placed on it by other apps. Those other apps may not be running (or running at much lower scale) in your development environment.
Back in the day, we had to worry about floppy disks (or even zip disks, or CDs) getting ejected while we were attempting to use them.
While less of a worry today, it’s still a potential problem.
Things like USB drives, network shares, and even the occasional DVD (or even a floppy!!) could be disconnected or removed while you are accessing them.
Worse still, you aren’t necessarily going to get a lot of notice if it is going to happen.
You probably also don’t want to immediately fail if the device is temporarily disconnected (USB hub power issues, or network blips, for instance),
but rather have some retry logic.
In addition to total failure, at least some of these devices could remain connected, but become horribly slow.
This is especially true of networked devices. You may need to take this into account as well.
Just because you can see (or even open) a file, doesn’t mean that you can write to it.
File system permissions are one of the primary ways that you’ll get burned here.
Files aren’t the only things that are secured.
Paths are as well, so you may not even be able to see a folder in which your file resides.
Permissions also may be more granular than you want.
For instance, you might be able to read a file, or append to it, but be unable to overwrite it.
Many systems (Linux, for example) also include an execute bit, so if you are attempting to run another program or script, this permission may get in your way as well.
Hard drives fail or develop various problems over their lifecycle.
This used to be more common than it is now, but it still does happen.
It’s also possible that the hard drive may be under high utilization and simply be slow,
or that the file system on the disk is slow due to lack of maintenance (in file systems where this is an issue).
These issues don’t just happen when you first open a file, as they can occur while you are reading/writing the file.
Make sure your code is appropriately handling errors any time it is accessing the file system.
Not all files are ascii.
Not all file paths are either.
This can burn you if you are making assumptions in your code, especially if you are in the English-speaking world, but have clients elsewhere.
Similarly, the contents of the files may reflect a different encoding.
Just because you get a file path, doesn’t mean you can use it.
This is especially true if paths come out of config files and the like.
It’s also a problem if the user enters a path that is too long.
While most modern tools can handle longer file paths, some older tools that are still in use cannot and will crash.
Be aware that path separators are not always the same.
Windows uses ‘\’ and unix uses ‘/’.
Also be aware that some characters in path strings have special meaning in things like globs, regexes, and regular old strings (escape sequences, for instance).
Two paths that are string equal are not necessarily the same file, and two paths that are different can be the same file.
Remember that OS’es have options for aliasing and the like.
Be careful moving files as well.
A file path that is acceptable in one directory may be too long when moved to another.
Some characters can’t be used in file names.
For instance, windows doesn’t allow glob characters (like *, ?) to be used in file names.
Some filenames are special.
For instance, you can’t use con.txt or aux.mp3.
This is an ancient backward compatibility thing.
Also, watch how you treat file extensions.
The extension is not the first three characters after the first period…
Speaking of extensions, be careful to use appropriate extensions for any files that are intended to be read by humans or by other programs.
Many enterprise systems run anti-virus software that scans new files before allowing access to them.
This can mean that you can’t read a file just after it is written to disk.
Additionally, just because a new file is on disk doesn’t mean that it is ready for reads.
For instance, large files being transferred over a slow connection may take several minutes to truly be available.
It’s also possible to see a file on the file system and have it disappear between it being found and being opened.
Basically, even though you are taught to check for a file’s existence before trying to open it, that’s not a perfect way to make sure the file exists, is readable, and can be accessed by you
Using files as a means of communication
This can be done over the network ie use of http or ftp
Using a shared file system for several apps
Not the best way of doing things, but is still in use
Some apps simply look at the extension on a file to determine what tool should open that file, so an incorrect extension can cause problems.