PRB: PrivateProfile Problems, in 4.0b Macintosh Cross-Compiler (201597)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions 4.0
  • Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions 4.0a
  • Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions 4.1
  • Microsoft Visual C++, Macintosh Cross-Development Addon 4.0
  • Microsoft Visual C++, Macintosh Cross-Development Addon 4.0b
This article was previously published under Q201597

SYMPTOMS

The PrivateProfile family of routines may fail on the Macintosh operating system due to caching of the preference file name.

CAUSE

The PrivateProfile family of routines supported on the Macintosh (GetPrivateProfileInt, GetPrivateProfileString, and WritePrivateProfileString) cache the previously opened preference file by file name. This preference file is closed on idle to avoid repeated opening and closing of preference files. This mechanism fails if an already opened file is specified later by a PrivateProfile routine using a different file name.

Consider the case where "test preferences" is passed to GetPrivateProfileString first and "Macintosh HD:System Folder:Preferences:test preferences" is subsequently passed to WritePrivateProfileString. While the second reference is valid and the correct file is found, the file name is not recognized as the same file name already cached. The second attempt to open the file fails. Specifically, an attempt to create the file fails with an unexpected error code (other than dupFNErr). When this happens, GetPrivateProfileString and GetPrivateProfileInt return the default value and WritePrivateProfileString fails.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, always specify the file in the same way.

Prior to calling InitInstance, the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) references a preference file with the same name as the application, with " Preferences" appended to it. It specifies the file by only the file name. If you need to access this same preference file from within InitInstance(), you must use only the file name.

Consider always using only the file name to reference any preference file that may also be referenced internally by the MFC.

MORE INFORMATION

The preference file names are cached as an optimization to reduce the number of times the preference file is opened and closed. To avoid the PrivateProfile APIs opening and closing the file each time it is invoked, the preference file is left opened and subsequently closed when the application is idle.

A list of open preference file names is used to determine whether a preference file is already opened. When a PrivateProfile routine is invoked, it first checks this file name. If the file name is different, PrivateProfile attempts to reopen the file and an error occurs.

Prior to calling InitInstance, the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library reads and writes to a preference file. The file name is determined by appending " Preferences" to the application name (as read from string resource AFX_IDS_APP_TITLE).

If a preference file by the same name is accessed within InitInstance, the file will still be open because the application hasn't been idle yet. Accessing this file using a different file name (that is, a fully qualified file name) will fail. The solution is to use the same string literal that MFC uses as described above.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

   ...
   char buffer[MY_MAX_BUFFER+1];
   GetPrivateProfileString (lpSection, lpKey, lpDefault, buffer, MY_MAX_BUFFER, "test preferences");
   // Check buffer, should be valid.
   GetPrivateProfileString (lpSection, lpKey, lpDefault, buffer, MY_MAX_BUFFER, "Macintosh HD:System Folder:Preferences:test preferences");
   // Check buffer, will be lpDefault.
   ...
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:12/8/2003
Keywords:kbNoUpdate kbprb kbRegistry KB201597
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.