.NET Framework Developer's Guide: Asynchronous File I/O

.NET Framework Developer's Guide: Asynchronous File I/O

Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging
Imports System.Security.Permissions



Module BulkImageProcAsync
    Dim ImageBaseName As String = "tmpImage-"
    Dim numImages As Integer = 200
    Dim numPixels As Integer = 512 * 512

    ' ProcessImage has a simple O(N) loop, and you can vary the number
    ' of times you repeat that loop to make the application more CPU-
    ' bound or more IO-bound.
    Dim processImageRepeats As Integer = 20

    ' Threads must decrement NumImagesToFinish, and protect
    ' their access to it through a mutex.
    Dim NumImagesToFinish As Integer = numImages
    Dim NumImagesMutex(-1) As [Object]
    ' WaitObject is signalled when all image processing is done.
    Dim WaitObject(-1) As [Object]

    Structure ImageStateObject
        Public pixels() As Byte
        Public imageNum As Integer
        Public fs As FileStream
    End Structure


     _
    Sub MakeImageFiles()
        Dim sides As Integer = Fix(Math.Sqrt(numPixels))
        Console.Write("Making {0} {1}x{1} images... ", numImages, sides)
        Dim pixels(numPixels) As Byte
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To numPixels
            pixels(i) = 255
        Next i
        Dim fs As FileStream
        For i = 0 To numImages
            fs = New FileStream(ImageBaseName + i.ToString() + ".tmp", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None, 8192, False)
            fs.Write(pixels, 0, pixels.Length)
            FlushFileBuffers(fs.SafeFileHandle.DangerousGetHandle())
            fs.Close()
        Next i
        fs = Nothing
        Console.WriteLine("Done.")

    End Sub


    Sub ReadInImageCallback(ByVal asyncResult As IAsyncResult)
        Dim state As ImageStateObject = CType(asyncResult.AsyncState, ImageStateObject)
        Dim stream As Stream = state.fs
        Dim bytesRead As Integer = stream.EndRead(asyncResult)
        If bytesRead <> numPixels Then
            Throw New Exception(String.Format("In ReadInImageCallback, got the wrong number of " + "bytes from the image: {0}.", bytesRead))
        End If
        ProcessImage(state.pixels, state.imageNum)
        stream.Close()

        ' Now write out the image.
        ' Using asynchronous I/O here appears not to be best practice.
        ' It ends up swamping the threadpool, because the threadpool
        ' threads are blocked on I/O requests that were just queued to
        ' the threadpool.
        Dim fs As New FileStream(ImageBaseName + state.imageNum.ToString() + ".done", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None, 4096, False)
        fs.Write(state.pixels, 0, numPixels)
        fs.Close()

        ' This application model uses too much memory.
        ' Releasing memory as soon as possible is a good idea,
        ' especially global state.
        state.pixels = Nothing
        fs = Nothing
        ' Record that an image is finished now.
        SyncLock NumImagesMutex
            NumImagesToFinish -= 1
            If NumImagesToFinish = 0 Then
                Monitor.Enter(WaitObject)
                Monitor.Pulse(WaitObject)
                Monitor.Exit(WaitObject)
            End If
        End SyncLock

    End Sub


    Sub ProcessImage(ByVal pixels() As Byte, ByVal imageNum As Integer)
        Console.WriteLine("ProcessImage {0}", imageNum)
        Dim y As Integer
        ' Perform some CPU-intensive operation on the image.
        Dim x As Integer
        For x = 0 To processImageRepeats
            For y = 0 To numPixels
                pixels(y) = 1
            Next y
        Next x
        Console.WriteLine("ProcessImage {0} done.", imageNum)

    End Sub


    Sub ProcessImagesInBulk()
        Console.WriteLine("Processing images...  ")
        Dim t0 As Long = Environment.TickCount
        NumImagesToFinish = numImages
        Dim readImageCallback As New AsyncCallback(AddressOf ReadInImageCallback)
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To numImages
            Dim state As New ImageStateObject()
            state.pixels = New Byte(numPixels) {}
            state.imageNum = i
            ' Very large items are read only once, so you can make the
            ' buffer on the FileStream very small to save memory.
            Dim fs As New FileStream(ImageBaseName + i.ToString() + ".tmp", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read, 1, True)
            state.fs = fs
            fs.BeginRead(state.pixels, 0, numPixels, readImageCallback, state)
        Next i

        ' Determine whether all images are done being processed.
        ' If not, block until all are finished.
        Dim mustBlock As Boolean = False
        SyncLock NumImagesMutex
            If NumImagesToFinish > 0 Then
                mustBlock = True
            End If
        End SyncLock
        If mustBlock Then
            Console.WriteLine("All worker threads are queued. " + " Blocking until they complete. numLeft: {0}", NumImagesToFinish)
            Monitor.Enter(WaitObject)
            Monitor.Wait(WaitObject)
            Monitor.Exit(WaitObject)
        End If
        Dim t1 As Long = Environment.TickCount
        Console.WriteLine("Total time processing images: {0}ms", t1 - t0)

    End Sub


    Sub Cleanup()
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To numImages
            File.Delete(ImageBaseName + i.ToString + ".tmp")
            File.Delete(ImageBaseName + i.ToString + ".done")
        Next i

    End Sub


    Sub TryToClearDiskCache()
        ' Try to force all pending writes to disk, and clear the
        ' disk cache of any data.
        Dim bytes(100 * (1 << i =" 0" bytes =" Nothing" length =" 1" processimagerepeats =" Int32.Parse(args(0))"> _
    Sub FlushFileBuffers(ByVal handle As IntPtr)
    End Sub
End Module

Here is a synchronous example of the same idea.

Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging
Imports System.Security.Permissions



Module BulkImageProcSync
    Dim ImageBaseName As String = "tmpImage-"
    Dim numImages As Integer = 200
    Dim numPixels As Integer = 512 * 512

    ' ProcessImage has a simple O(N) loop, and you can vary the number
    ' of times you repeat that loop to make the application more CPU-
    ' bound or more IO-bound.
    Dim processImageRepeats As Integer = 20

     _
    Sub MakeImageFiles()
        Dim sides As Integer = Fix(Math.Sqrt(numPixels))
        Console.Write("Making {0} {1}x{1} images... ", numImages, sides)
        Dim pixels(numPixels) As Byte
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To numPixels
            pixels(i) = 255
        Next i
        Dim fs As FileStream
        For i = 0 To numImages
            fs = New FileStream(ImageBaseName + i.ToString + ".tmp", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None, 8192, False)
            fs.Write(pixels, 0, pixels.Length)
            FlushFileBuffers(fs.SafeFileHandle.DangerousGetHandle())
            fs.Close()
        Next i
        fs = Nothing
        Console.WriteLine("Done.")

    End Sub


    Sub ProcessImage(ByVal pixels() As Byte, ByVal imageNum As Integer)
        Console.WriteLine("ProcessImage {0}", imageNum)
        Dim y As Integer
        ' Perform some CPU-intensive operation on the image.
        Dim x As Integer
        For x = 0 To processImageRepeats
            For y = 0 To numPixels
                pixels(y) = 1
            Next y
        Next x
        Console.WriteLine("ProcessImage {0} done.", imageNum)

    End Sub


    Sub ProcessImagesInBulk()
        Console.WriteLine("Processing images... ")
        Dim t0 As Long = Environment.TickCount
        Dim pixels(numPixels) As Byte
        Dim input As FileStream
        Dim output As FileStream
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To numImages
            input = New FileStream(ImageBaseName + i.ToString + ".tmp", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read, 4196, False)
            input.Read(pixels, 0, numPixels)
            input.Close()
            ProcessImage(pixels, i)
            output = New FileStream(ImageBaseName + i.ToString + ".done", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None, 4196, False)
            output.Write(pixels, 0, numPixels)
            output.Close()
        Next i
        input = Nothing
        output = Nothing
        Dim t1 As Long = Environment.TickCount
        Console.WriteLine("Total time processing images: {0}ms", t1 - t0)

    End Sub


    Sub Cleanup()
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To numImages
            File.Delete(ImageBaseName + i.ToString + ".tmp")
            File.Delete(ImageBaseName + i.ToString + ".done")
        Next i

    End Sub


    Sub TryToClearDiskCache()
        Dim bytes(100 * (1 << i =" 0" bytes =" Nothing" length =" 1" processimagerepeats =" Int32.Parse(args(0))"> _
    Sub FlushFileBuffers(ByVal handle As IntPtr)
    End Sub
End Module

See Also:
Reference: Stream Stream.Read Stream.Write Stream.BeginRead Stream.BeginWrite Stream.EndRead Stream.EndWrite IAsyncResult Mutex
Other Resources: File and Stream I/O