How do I dispose my filestream when implementing a file download in ASP.NET?

asp.net, asp.net-mvc, c#, idisposable, streaming

Solution

You don't need to dispose the stream. It will be disposed by the FileStreamResult.WriteFile method. Code excerpt from this class:

public FileStreamResult(Stream fileStream, string contentType) : base(contentType)
{
    if (fileStream == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("fileStream");
    }
    this.FileStream = fileStream;
}

protected override void WriteFile(HttpResponseBase response)
{
    Stream outputStream = response.OutputStream;
    using (this.FileStream)
    {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[0x1000];
        while (true)
        {
            int count = this.FileStream.Read(buffer, 0, 0x1000);
            if (count == 0)
            {
                return;
            }
            outputStream.Write(buffer, 0, count);
        }
    }
}

Notice the `using`. When you call `File(dg.GetDocumentStream(), "text/plain", filename)` from your controller this invokes the constructor which stores the stream into a public property which is disposed during the rendering.

Conclusion: you don't need to worry about disposing the stream obtain with `dg.GetDocumentStream()`.

Problem

I have a class `DocumentGenerator` which wraps a `MemoryStream`. So I have implemented `IDisposable` on the class. I can't see how/where I can possibly dispose it though. This is my current code, which performs a file download in MVC: ``` using (DocumentGenerator dg = DocumentGenerator.OpenTemplate(path)) { /* some document manipulation with the DocumentGenerator goes here ...*/ return File(dg.GetDocumentStream(), "text/plain", filename); } ``` This errors as the stream is closed/disposed before the controller has finished with it. How can I make sure my resources are properly disposed in this situation? EDIT: My implementation of `IDisposable` at the moment just disposes the `MemoryStream`. I know it's not a proper implementation, I just used it as a test. Is there something different I could do here to make it work? ``` public void Dispose() { _ms.Dispose(); _ms = null; } ```

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