The System.IO.FileSystemInfo class contains methods that are common to file and directory manipulation. A System.IO.FileSystemInfo object can represent either a file or a directory, thus serving as the basis for System.IO.FileInfo or System.IO.DirectoryInfo objects. Use this base class when parsing a lot of files and directories.

A derived class can inherit from System.IO.FileSystemInfo only if the derived class has the AllAccess permission from the System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermissionAccess enumeration.

In members that accept a path, the path can refer to a file or just a directory. The specified path can also refer to a relative path or a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path for a server and share name. For example, all the following are acceptable paths:

• "c:\\MyDir\\MyFile.txt" in C#, or "c:\MyDir\MyFile.txt" in Visual Basic.

• "c:\\MyDir" in C#, or "c:\MyDir" in Visual Basic.

• "MyDir\\MySubdir" in C#, or "MyDir\MySubDir" in Visual Basic.

• "\\\\MyServer\\MyShare" in C#, or "\\MyServer\MyShare" in Visual Basic.

For a list of common I/O tasks, see Common I/O Tasks.