Win32 API for rename a file in C

c winapi file-rename
tom picture tom · Dec 22, 2010 · Viewed 19.2k times · Source

If the source directory and the target directory, MoveFile would actually make a copy of the source file into the target file, which means that I will end up seeing two files.

Is that the best way that rename can be achieved?

Answer

Greg Hewgill picture Greg Hewgill · Dec 22, 2010

The MoveFile function is indeed what you want. From the documentation:

The MoveFile function will move (rename) either a file or a directory (including its children) either in the same directory or across directories.

If the source and destination locations are both on the same volume, then an atomic rename operation is performed. If they're on different volumes, then a copy/delete operation is done instead (this is the best you can do).

Related questions

How to list physical disks?

How to list physical disks in Windows? In order to obtain a list of "\\\\.\PhysicalDrive0" available.

Read More
How to get the error message from the error code returned by GetLastError()?

After a Windows API call, how can I get the last error message in a textual form? GetLastError() returns an integer value, not a text message.

Read More
What is __stdcall?

I'm learning about Win32 programming, and the WinMain prototype looks like: int WINAPI WinMain ( HINSTANCE instance, HINSTANCE prev_instance, PSTR cmd_line, int cmd_show ) I was confused as to what this WINAPI identifier was for and found: #define WINAPI __…

Read More