Returning Azure BLOB from WCF service as a Stream - Do we need to close it?

Question

I have a simple WCF service that exposes a REST endpoint, and fetches files from a BLOB container. The service returns the file as a stream. i stumbled this post about closing t

Answer 1

I'd consider changing your return type to byte[]. It's tidier.

Stream implements IDisposable, so in theory the consumer of your method will need to call your code in a using block:

using (var receivedStream = new FileService().ServeHttpRequest(someUrl))
{
   // do something with the stream
}

If your client definitely needs access to something that Stream provides, then by all means go ahead and return that, but by returning a byte[] you keep control of any unmanaged resources that are hidden under the covers.

Answer 2

OperationBehaviorAttribute.AutoDisposeParameters is set to TRUE by default which calls dispose on all the inputs/outputs that are disposable. So everything just works.
This link :
http://devdump.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/disposing-return-values/
explains how to manually control the process.