Wait for file to be freed by process

If you check access before writing to the file some other process might snatch the access again before you manage to do your write. Therefor I would suggest one of the following two:

1. Wrap what you want to do in a retry scope that won't hide any other error
2. Create a wrapper method that waits until you can get a stream and use that stream

getting a stream

private FileStream GetWriteStream(string path, int timeoutMs)
{
    var time = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    while (time.ElapsedMilliseconds < timeoutMs)
    {
        try
        {
            return new FileStream(path, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            // access error
            if (e.HResult != -2147024864)
                throw;
        }
    }

    throw new TimeoutException($"Failed to get a write handle to {path} within {timeoutMs}ms.");
}

then use it like this:

using (var stream = GetWriteStream("path"))
{
    using (var writer = new StreamWriter(stream))
        writer.Write("test");
}

retry scope

private void WithRetry(Action action, int timeoutMs = 1000)
{
    var time = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    while(time.ElapsedMilliseconds < timeoutMs)
    {
        try
        {
            action();
            return;
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            // access error
            if (e.HResult != -2147024864)
                throw;
        }
    }
    throw new Exception("Failed perform action within allotted time.");
}

and then use WithRetry(() => File.WriteAllText(Path.Combine(_directory, name), contents));

A function like this will do it:

public static bool IsFileReady(string filename)
{
    // If the file can be opened for exclusive access it means that the file
    // is no longer locked by another process.
    try
    {
        using (FileStream inputStream = File.Open(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.None))
            return inputStream.Length > 0;
    }
    catch (Exception)
    {
        return false;
    }
}

Stick it in a while loop and you have something which will block until the file is accessible:

public static void WaitForFile(string filename)
{
    //This will lock the execution until the file is ready
    //TODO: Add some logic to make it async and cancelable
    while (!IsFileReady(filename)) { }
}