Trouble with File delete() method on Win XP

[Carey Brown]

I have a large project that is built using ANT (all of which I inherited). During the build a temp directory is created and several jar files are copied there from other projects.

The problem started with the ANT 'clean' target not being able to delete these files. So I wrote a couple of lines of Java which open the temp directory and loop through the files to delete them. The delete() method of File was returning false. So I added a security check above it and it through an exception saying that I had no access permission.

Next step was to use Windows Explorer to see if these were read only. When I looked at the properties for the files they were not marked as 'read only'. The directory that contains them, however, had the 'read only' check box with a light gray square in it (no actual check mark).

Next I used the command line 'attrib' command to see if they were hidden or system. Nope.

However, I CAN delete them using the DEL command or right-clicking with Windows Explorer and selecting Delete (?).

I rebooted to make sure no zombie processes were holding on to them. No luck. I did a file system check. No luck.

We use Subversion for the project with Tortoise SVN installed on our XP boxes. I am set up with administer privileges on my machine. Tortoise SVN clearly indicates that the temp directory is not part of the Subversion collection.

If anyone can shed some light on this I would be extremely grateful.

Ultimately I would like ANT to work like it should, but I would also like to update my Java utility so that it could handle this scenario.

Carey

[Carey Brown]

Here's the delete() method that I wrote inside my utility.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.PrintStream;

public class FileFind
{
	private static final SecurityManager	securityManager = new SecurityManager();

	//...

	public static boolean delete( File f )
	{
		if( ! f.exists() )
		{
			System.err.println( "Cannont delete, file does not exist: " + f.getPath() );
			return false;
		}
		f.setReadable( true );
		f.setWritable( true );
		if( ! f.canWrite() )
		{
			System.err.println( "Cannont delete, file is read-only: " + f.getPath() );
			return false;
		}

		// Hack attempt
		File	parent = f.getParentFile();
		parent.setReadable( true );
		parent.setWritable( true );
		if( ! parent.canWrite() )
		{
			System.err.println( "Cannont delete, parent folder read-only: " + parent.getPath() );
			return false;
		}

		try
		{
			securityManager.checkDelete( f.getPath() );
		}
		catch( Exception ex )
		{
			System.err.println( "Cannot delete file, " + ex.getMessage() );
			return false;
		}

		boolean ret = f.delete();
		if( ! ret )
			System.err.println( "Delete failed: " + f.getPath() );
		return ret;
	}
}

[Rob Spoor]

Moving to I/O.