Windows error 132 (ERROR_SEEK_ON_DEVICE): meaning and diagnosis

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: The target device or stream does not support seeking.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ENOBUFS	errno	Solaris
EOVERFLOW	errno	Windows
RECOM_DRIVER	BugCheck Code	Windows

Previous	Next
ERROR_NEGATIVE_SEEK	ERROR_IS_JOIN_TARGET

ERROR_SEEK_ON_DEVICE

The stream is not seekable

ERROR_SEEK_ON_DEVICE means the caller requested random access on a handle whose underlying object supports only sequential I/O. Pipes, consoles, sockets, and some device interfaces are common examples.

Checks

Determine the object type behind the handle.
Do not assume every HANDLE represents a disk file.
Check capability before using file-position APIs.
Buffer sequential input explicitly when later repositioning is required.

Resolution

Use a sequential processing path or copy the data to seekable storage before random access.

References

Microsoft: System error codes 0–499
Microsoft: File management

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