This chapter describes the fundamental types for input and output in .NET, with emphasis on the following topics:
The .NET stream architecture and how it provides a consistent programming interface for reading and writing across a variety of I/O types
Classes for manipulating files and directories on disk
Specialized streams for compression, named pipes, and memory-mapped files.
This chapter concentrates on the types in the System.IO namespace, the home of lower-level I/O functionality.
Stream Architecture
The .NET stream architecture centers on three concepts: backing stores, decorators, and adapters, as shown in Figure 15-1.
A backing store is the endpoint that makes input and output useful, such as a file or network connection. Precisely, it is either or both of the following:
A source from which bytes can be sequentially read
A destination to which bytes can be sequentially written
A backing store is of no use, though, unless exposed to the programmer. A Stream is the standard .NET class for this purpose; it exposes a standard set of methods for reading, writing, and positioning. Unlike an array, for which all the backing data exists in memory at once, a stream deals with data serially—either one byte at a time or in blocks of a manageable size. Hence, a stream can use a small, fixed amount of memory regardless of the size of its backing store.
Figure 15-1. Stream architecture
Streams fall into two categories:
Backing store streams
These ...
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