ASP.net MVC File Content-Length

Question

The code below is a greatly simplified test action in a new MVC project. The action is meant to return a simple text file containing the word test .

public ActionResult FileTest()
{
    return File(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("test"), "text/plain", "test.txt");
}

When viewing the HTTP response from the server I would expect to see a header with Content-Length: 4 , instead I see Content-Length: 122

Chrome and IE seem perfectly capable of coping with the miss match in Content-Length verses the number of bytes actually returned. Firefox (v47) however fails to download the file, indefinitely showing 4 of 122 bytes downloaded.

My question is: Is the behaviour I'm witnessing something I'm doing incorrectly, or is this a defect in the framework? Secondly, what I can do to resolve the issue?

Answer 1

I cross checked your code and it seems to be working fine on FireFox v47.

I suggest changing the return type from "ActionResult" to "FileResult" for returning files. This may resolve your issue. Let me know if you still face the same issue.