How to check for End-of-File using NSFileHandle's readabilityHandler?
I personally compare current file offset with current file position and stop reading.
extension FileHandle {
func stopReadingIfPassedEOF() {
let pos = offsetInFile
let len = seekToEndOfFile()
if pos < len {
// Resume reading.
seek(toFileOffset: pos)
}
else {
// Stop.
// File offset pointer stays at the EOF.
readabilityHandler = nil
}
}
}
I couldn't understand why it's been designed in this way for a long time, but now I think this could be intentional.
In my opinion, Apple basically defines FileHandle
as an infinite stream, therefore, EOF is not well defined unless you close the file. FileHandle
seem to be more like a "channel".
It's also unclear what happens if another process appends/delete some data to/from the file while you're reading from it. What would be the EOF in this case? As far as I find, there's no mention about this case in Apple documentation. As far as I know, there's no true exclusive file I/O lock in macOS like other Unix-like systems.
In my opinion, availableData
can return empty data at any time if I/O is not fast enough, and readabilityHandler
just don't care about EOF.