C# check if a COM (Serial) port is already open

Question

Is there an easy way of programmatically checking if a serial COM port is already open/being used?

Normally I would use:

try
{
    // open port
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // handle the exception
}

However, I would like to programatically check so I can attempt to use another COM port or some such.

Answer 1

I needed something similar some time ago, to search for a device.

I obtained a list of available COM ports and then simply iterated over them, if it didn't throw an exception i tried to communicate with the device. A bit rough but working.

var portNames = SerialPort.GetPortNames();

foreach(var port in portNames) {
    //Try for every portName and break on the first working
}

Answer 2

This is how I did it:

      [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    internal static extern SafeFileHandle CreateFile(string lpFileName, int dwDesiredAccess, int dwShareMode, IntPtr securityAttrs, int dwCreationDisposition, int dwFlagsAndAttributes, IntPtr hTemplateFile);

then later on

        int dwFlagsAndAttributes = 0x40000000;

        var portName = "COM5";

        var isValid = SerialPort.GetPortNames().Any(x => string.Compare(x, portName, true) == 0);
        if (!isValid)
            throw new System.IO.IOException(string.Format("{0} port was not found", portName));

        //Borrowed from Microsoft's Serial Port Open Method :)
        SafeFileHandle hFile = CreateFile(@"\\.\" + portName, -1073741824, 0, IntPtr.Zero, 3, dwFlagsAndAttributes, IntPtr.Zero);
        if (hFile.IsInvalid)
            throw new System.IO.IOException(string.Format("{0} port is already open", portName));

        hFile.Close();


        using (var serialPort = new SerialPort(portName, 115200, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One))
        {
            serialPort.Open();
        }

Answer 3

The SerialPort class has an Open method, which will throw a few exceptions. The reference above contains detailed examples.

See also, the IsOpen property.

A simple test:

using System;
using System.IO.Ports;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace SerPort1
{
class Program
{
    static private SerialPort MyPort;
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        MyPort = new SerialPort("COM1");
        OpenMyPort();
        Console.WriteLine("BaudRate {0}", MyPort.BaudRate);
        OpenMyPort();
        MyPort.Close();
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static void OpenMyPort()
    {
        try
        {
            MyPort.Open();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Error opening my port: {0}", ex.Message);
        }
    }
  }
}

Answer 4

This is what worked for me.

private string portName { get; set; } = string.Empty;

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns SerialPort Port State (Open / Closed)
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    internal bool HasOpenPort()
    {
        bool portState = false;

        if (portName != string.Empty)
        {
            using (SerialPort serialPort = new SerialPort(portName))
            {
                foreach (var itm in SerialPort.GetPortNames())
                {
                    if (itm.Contains(serialPort.PortName))
                    {
                        if (serialPort.IsOpen) { portState = true; }
                        else { portState = false; }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        else { System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Error: No Port Specified."); }

        return portState;
    }

In Case You need to catch SerialPort (Open) Exceptions: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.ports.serialport.open?view=netframework-4.7.2

Answer 5

You can try folloing code to check whether a port already open or not. I'm assumming you dont know specificaly which port you want to check.

foreach (var portName in Serial.GetPortNames()
{
  SerialPort port = new SerialPort(portName);
  if (port.IsOpen){
    /** do something **/
  }
  else {
    /** do something **/
  }
}