CreateDirectoryTransactedA function (winbase.h)
[Microsoft strongly recommends developers utilize alternative means to achieve your application’s needs. Many scenarios that TxF was developed for can be achieved through simpler and more readily available techniques. Furthermore, TxF may not be available in future versions of Microsoft Windows. For more information, and alternatives to TxF, please see Alternatives to using Transactional NTFS.]
Creates a new directory as a transacted operation, with the attributes of a specified template directory. If the underlying file system supports security on files and directories, the function applies a specified security descriptor to the new directory. The new directory retains the other attributes of the specified template directory.
Syntax
BOOL CreateDirectoryTransactedA(
[in, optional] LPCSTR lpTemplateDirectory,
[in] LPCSTR lpNewDirectory,
[in, optional] LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES lpSecurityAttributes,
[in] HANDLE hTransaction
);
Parameters
[in, optional] lpTemplateDirectory
The path of the directory to use as a template when creating the new directory. This parameter can be NULL.
By default, the name is limited to MAX_PATH characters. To extend this limit to 32,767 wide characters, prepend "\\?\" to the path. For more information, see Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces.
Tip
Starting with Windows 10, Version 1607, you can opt-in to remove the MAX_PATH limitation without prepending "\\?\". See the "Maximum Path Length Limitation" section of Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces for details.
The directory must reside on the local computer; otherwise, the function fails and the last error code is set to ERROR_TRANSACTIONS_UNSUPPORTED_REMOTE.
[in] lpNewDirectory
The path of the directory to be created.
By default, the name is limited to MAX_PATH characters. To extend this limit to 32,767 wide characters, prepend "\\?\" to the path. For more information, see Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces.
Tip
Starting with Windows 10, Version 1607, you can opt-in to remove the MAX_PATH limitation without prepending "\\?\". See the "Maximum Path Length Limitation" section of Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces for details.
[in, optional] lpSecurityAttributes
A pointer to a SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES structure. The lpSecurityDescriptor member of the structure specifies a security descriptor for the new directory.
If lpSecurityAttributes is NULL, the directory gets a default security descriptor. The access control lists (ACL) in the default security descriptor for a directory are inherited from its parent directory.
The target file system must support security on files and directories for this parameter to have an effect. This is indicated when GetVolumeInformation returns FS_PERSISTENT_ACLS.
[in] hTransaction
A handle to the transaction. This handle is returned by the CreateTransaction function.
Return value
If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.
If the function fails, the return value is zero (0). To get extended error information, call GetLastError. Possible errors include the following.
| Return code | Description |
|---|---|
|
The specified directory already exists. |
|
You cannot create a child directory with a parent directory that has encryption disabled. |
|
One or more intermediate directories do not exist. This function only creates the final directory in the path. |
Remarks
The CreateDirectoryTransacted function allows you to create directories that inherit stream information from other directories. This function is useful, for example, when you are using Macintosh directories, which have a resource stream that is needed to properly identify directory contents as an attribute.
Some file systems, such as the NTFS file system, support compression or encryption for individual files and directories. On volumes formatted for such a file system, a new directory inherits the compression and encryption attributes of its parent directory.
This function fails with ERROR_EFS_NOT_ALLOWED_IN_TRANSACTION if you try to create a child directory with a parent directory that has encryption disabled.
You can obtain a handle to a directory by calling the CreateFileTransacted function with the FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS flag set.
In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, this function is supported by the following technologies.
| Technology | Supported |
|---|---|
| Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol | No |
| SMB 3.0 Transparent Failover (TFO) | No |
| SMB 3.0 with Scale-out File Shares (SO) | No |
| Cluster Shared Volume File System (CsvFS) | No |
| Resilient File System (ReFS) | No |
SMB 3.0 does not support TxF.
Note
The winbase.h header defines CreateDirectoryTransacted as an alias that automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that is not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.
Requirements
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum supported client | Windows Vista [desktop apps only] |
| Minimum supported server | Windows Server 2008 [desktop apps only] |
| Target Platform | Windows |
| Header | winbase.h (include Windows.h) |
| Library | Kernel32.lib |
| DLL | Kernel32.dll |
See also
Creating and Deleting Directories