What I ended up doing is:
internal void LoadExternalData() {
FileStream file;
if (TryOpenRead("filepath/filename", 5, out file)) {
using (file)
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(file)) {
// do something
}
}
}
internal bool TryOpenRead(string path, int timeout, out FileStream file) {
bool isLocked = true;
bool condition = true;
do {
try {
file = File.OpenRead(path);
return true;
}
catch (IOException e) {
var errorCode = Marshal.GetHRForException(e) & ((1 << 16) - 1);
isLocked = errorCode == 32 || errorCode == 33;
condition = (isLocked && timeout > 0);
if (condition) {
// we only wait if the file is locked. If the exception is of any other type, there's no point on keep trying. just return false and null;
timeout--;
new System.Threading.ManualResetEvent(false).WaitOne(1000);
}
}
}
while (condition);
file = null;
return false;
}