how do I open a log file thats in use (read is only needed)

Hello, I need to open a log file, but the files always in use..

no matter what i do I keep getting

"An unhandled exception of type 'System.IO.IOException' occurred in mscorlib.dll

Additional information: The process cannot access the file "... .log" because it is being used by another process."

I can open the file in notepad and wordpad, why cant I / how do I open it in my code?

this is my code now.
[code=vb]
If IO.File.Exists(LogPath) = True Then
Dim st As IO.FileStream = IO.File.Open(LogPath, IO.FileMode.Open, IO.FileAccess.Read, IO.FileShare.Read)
Dim sr As New IO.StreamReader(st)
Dim a() As String = Split(sr.ReadToEnd, vbCrLf)
[/code]

If you need to read it only, you can copy it to a different file first and then open.
PS you CAN copy the file that is in use

try this way :

VB Code:

Dim read As IO.BinaryReader
read = New IO.BinaryReader(IO.File.OpenRead(path))
Dim str As String = read.ReadString
read.Close()
read = Nothing

oh this won't solve it. I believe you are trying to read it while it is in use .:D .Well , try Iouri's way seems logical :D

Ya copying it works, BUT there has to be a way to read it?

My log files are a little big so copying it everytime it changes is a big job..

ANY IDEAS??

I'm really needing to open a file that is currently in use too and don't know how. Any ideias?

Howcome the file is in use?? Look there first... I sometimes forget to close my file pointers leaving the file/dbconnection/usbpipe/whatever open...

It's not a good programming mentality to leave files open for along period of time.... perform

open->write->close even if you write to the file frequently...

if you get this exception, catch it and retry... normally it doesn't take many ms to write some lines to a textfile...

kind regards
Henrik

The file is an IIS Log File...

Its not my file, but now you can see why its open all the time right.

You can right click > open with notepad and the file will open... but if i use wordpad it wont. There has to be a way to open that file read-only while its in use???????