Recommendations are confusing and conflicting

[Robin-G]

Hello,

the article recommends using finalizers in order to release resources. However, it - rightly - contains a note, that highlights that finalizers may not be called at all (for .NET 5 or later).

Let us consider a resource which uses lock files. The resource is obtained in the constructor (the lock file is created) and released - as recommended - with a finalizer (which deletes the lock file). Since in .NET 5 and later the finalizer may not be called at the termination of the program the lock file remains and the resource is never again released. The article only suggests using IDisposable if it is necessary to release the resource fast (which isn't the case in this example).

The recommendation probably should be amended that only resources which are released automatically at the termination of the program can use the finalizer to free them. Otherwise they might never be released.

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Document Details

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• ID: a96eaef8-dcc9-4659-3f4e-be5a1c4c6b50
• Version Independent ID: d3da7981-542d-e906-5988-b80e403fa651
• Content: Finalizers - C# Programming Guide
• Content Source: docs/csharp/programming-guide/classes-and-structs/finalizers.md
• Product: dotnet-csharp
• Technology: csharp-fundamentals
• GitHub Login: @BillWagner
• Microsoft Alias: wiwagn

[BillWagner]

hi @Robin-G

This is a bit of a special case. In this example, you should implement IDisposable to release the lock file, and handle the ProcessExit event to ensure that the Dispose method is called.

I'll add this enhancement to our backlog to update.

[BillWagner]

This has been fixed in the interim