Confusing exception on `File.ReadAllText` method: "`UnauthorizedAccessException`: `path` specified a file that is read-only."

[SetTrend]

Type of issue

Missing information

Description

In the File.ReadAllText method description there's an exception listed:

UnauthorizedAccessException
path specified a file that is read-only.

Without further explanation to this exception it is very confusing to the reader: It implies that the File.ReadAllText cannot read from files that are read-only.

Looking at the .NET source code, however, File.ReadAllText opens files with arguments FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read. So, it's perfectly legal – and reasonable, if I may say so – to read from read-only files using File.ReadAllText.

In the documentation, please

1. elaborate on the fact that files are read with above mentioned file access arguments,
2. elaborate on the (obscure) special case causing above mentioned UnauthorizedAccessException to be thrown.

Page URL

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.file.readalltext?view=net-9.0&devlangs=csharp&f1url=%3FappId%3DDev17IDEF1%26l%3DDE-DE%26k%3Dk(System.IO.File.ReadAllText)%3Bk(DevLang-csharp)%26rd%3Dtrue

Content source URL

https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet-api-docs/blob/main/xml/System.IO/File.xml

Document Version Independent Id

b97f3644-3681-9fd1-a7b5-52e994db2233

Platform Id

01172106-1daf-bc5a-5bdc-75ec5f5ad0f5

Article author

@dotnet-bot

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Tagging subscribers to this area: @dotnet/area-system-io

[adamsitnik]

Hi @SetTrend

You are right, it's confusing and simply wrong. I suspect it's a copy-paste error from File.WriteAllText:

https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/blob/ef584b4c381c4e52fca7795c3b8cf108d5392315/src/libraries/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/IO/File.cs#L648