PRB: ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER from WriteFile() or ReadFile()
Article ID: 110148
Article Last Modified on 3/1/2005
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
- Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 Service Pack 5
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional
This article was previously published under Q110148
SYMPTOMS
The WriteFile() or ReadFile() function call may fail with the error
ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER
if you are operating on a named pipe and using
overlapped I/O.
CAUSE
A possible cause for the failure is that the Offset and OffsetHigh members
of the OVERLAPPED structure are not set to zero.
RESOLUTION
Set the Offset and OffsetHigh members of your OVERLAPPED structure to zero.
STATUS
This behavior is by design. The online help for both WriteFile() and
ReadFile() state that the Offset and OffsetHigh members of the OVERLAPPED
structure must be set to zero or the functions will fail.
MORE INFORMATION
In many cases the function calls may succeed if you do not explicitly set
OVERLAPPED.Offset and OVERLAPPED.OffsetHigh to zero. However, this is
usually either because the OVERLAPPED structure is static or global and
therefore is initialized to zero, or the OVERLAPPED structure is automatic
(local) and the contents of that location on the stack are already zero.
You should explicitly set the OVERLAPPED.Offset and OVERLAPPED.OffsetHigh
structure members to zero.
Keywords: kbapi kbpipes kbnetwork kbkernbase kbipc kbprb KB110148