Description

Use the SetFileAttributes method to change the attributes of the specified file. To get the existing attributes of a file, use the aqFile.GetFileAttributes method.

Declaration

aqFile.SetFileAttributes(Path, fAttr)

Path	[in]	Required	String
fAttr	[in]	Required	Integer
Result	Integer

Applies To

The method is applied to the following object:

aqFile

Parameters

The method has the following parameters:

Path

Specifies the fully-qualified path to the desired file.

fAttr

An integer value that specifies the file’s new attributes. This parameter can accept one or a combination of constants listed in the following table (these constants are defined in the aqFileSystem object). To combine multiple values, use the bitwise OR operator.

Constant	Value	Description
`faReadOnly`	1	A read-only file.
`faHidden`	2	A hidden file.
`faSystem`	4	A system file.
`faArchive`	32	An archive file.
`faNormal`	128	A file that does not have any other attributes set.
`faTemporary`	256	A file that is used for temporary storage.
`faOffline`	4096	A file whose data is physically moved to offline storage.
`faNotContentIndexed`	8192	A file that is not to be indexed by the content indexing service.

Result Value

If the file attributes have been changed successfully, the method returns 0. Otherwise, it returns a Windows error code. To get the error description, you can use the aqUtils.SysErrorMessage method. For a complete list of error codes, refer to the System Error Codes article in the MSDN library.

Remarks

The following attributes cannot be assigned by the aqFile.SetFileAttributes method:

Constant	Value	Reason
`faDirectory`	16	A file cannot be transformed to a folder and vice versa.
`faSparseFile`	512	Files are marked as sparse or not sparse via special tools and functions of the operating system.
`faReparsePoint`	1024	Reparse points are associated with files and folders via special tools and functions of the operating system.
`faCompressed`	2048	File and folder compression is enabled and disabled via specific tools and functions of the operating system.
`faEncrypted`	16384	Files and folder encryption is enabled and disabled via specific tools and functions of the operating system.
`faVirtual`	65536	Virtual files are created via special functions of the operating system.

Example

The following example demonstrates how you can make a file read-only and hidden (preserving other attributes):

JavaScript, JScript

function SetFileAttributesSample()
{
  var fileName = "C:\\MyFile.txt";
  var fa = aqFile.GetFileAttributes(fileName) | aqFileSystem.faReadOnly | aqFileSystem.faHidden;

  aqFile.SetFileAttributes(fileName, fa);
}

Python

def SetFileAttributesSample():
  fileName = "C:\\MyFiles\\MyFile.txt"
  fa = aqFile.GetFileAttributes(fileName) | aqFileSystem.faReadOnly | aqFileSystem.faHidden
  aqFile.SetFileAttributes(fileName, fa)

VBScript

Sub SetFileAttributesSample
  Dim fileName, fa

  fileName = "C:\\MyFile.txt"
  fa = aqFile.GetFileAttributes(fileName) Or aqFileSystem.faReadOnly Or aqFileSystem.faHidden

  aqFile.SetFileAttributes fileName, fa
End Sub

DelphiScript

procedure SetFileAttributesSample;
var fileName, fa;
begin
  fileName := 'C:\\MyFile.txt';
  fa := aqFile.GetFileAttributes(fileName) or aqFileSystem.faReadOnly or aqFileSystem.faHidden;

  aqFile.SetFileAttributes(fileName, fa);
end;