Notepad++ has a Reload false alarm / bug? "This file has been modified by another program. Do you want to reload it"? even when it hadn't been recently modified at all?!

pnedev

The CreateFile’s parameter about file attributes is combined with other flags.
The MSDN is saying that FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL cannot be combined with other ATTRIBUTE values (because those will overwrite FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL) but flags are separate thing and can surely be combined with attributes. Those are basically two separate types of values combined in one variable.

Quote from MSDN from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/fileapi/nf-fileapi-createfilew :

[in] dwFlagsAndAttributes

The file or device attributes and flags, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL being the most common default value for files.

This parameter can include any combination of the available file attributes (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_*). All other file attributes override FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL.

This parameter can also contain combinations of flags (FILE_FLAG_) for control of file or device caching behavior, access modes, and other special-purpose flags. These combine with any FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ values."

So we can safely use FILE_FLAG_SEQUENTIAL_SCAN, FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH and FILE_FLAG_POSIX_SEMANTICS and any other FILE_FLAG_* value together with FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL.

donho

@pnedev

Yes, that’s what I understood after reading agin MS Doc concerning CreateFile function.
However, the parameter FILE_FLAG_POSIX_SEMANTICS to me is not useful for Notepad++. But there is maybe a reason when you coded it - I would like to know it before removing it (or not).

pnedev

@donho ,

You can remove FILE_FLAG_POSIX_SEMANTICS if you like.

The reason I added it is because I am mostly using Linux in my daily work and I like the file name case sensitivity. It is a personal preference and in my opinion doesn’t harm in Windows as well.
I remember once long time ago I got a file from somewhere that was with all capitals name and when I tried to rename it to make the characters normal the system denied that claiming the name was the same. Seems that the confusion I felt back then still lingers :)

Aside from my personal preference, I am not sure if keeping that flag will be useful if Notepad++ is used for Network accessed files. I do not have much experience in that case so I’m not sure what will happen if some Network accessed location is having case-sensitive file system and in a folder there are two files with names that only differ in letter cases. I have no idea if such situation might happen either but how will Notepad++ distinguish between those files? Maybe it is something that will be handled on operating system level IDK for sure.

donho

@pnedev
Makes sens for this parameter. Let’s keep it then.
Thank you for your explanation.

Josef Eliáš

@leo-eibler , @donho
Where is this fix available? I have same problem and it sounds like you have fix :D

donho

@josef-eliáš
Download v8.1.9.2 here:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/v8.1.9.2/