JDK 1.7 introduced the "try-with-resources" statement [JLS 2011] §14.20.3, "try-with-resources" that makes it much easier to deal with simplifies correct use of resources that implement the java.lang.AutoCloseable interface, including those that implement the java.io.Closeable interface.
Using the try-with-resources statement avoids problems that can arise when closing resources with an ordinary try-catch-finally block, such as failing to close a resource because an exception is thrown as a result of closing another resource, or masking an important exception when a resource is closed.
Use of the try-with-resources statement is also illustrated in ERR05-J. Do not let checked exceptions escape from a finally block, FIO03-J. Remove temporary files before termination, and FIO04-J. Release resources when they are no longer needed.
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If only one exception is thrown, either during opening, processing, or closing of the files, the exception will be printed by the "thrown exception: " statement. If an exception is thrown during processing, and another one is thrown while trying to close either file, then the "thrown exception: " statement will print the exception encountered while closing the file, and the "suppressed exception: " statement will print the exception encountered during processing.
Applicability
Failing to use a try-with-resources statement when dealing correctly handle all failure cases when working with closeable resources may result in some resources not being closed, or important exceptions being masked, possibly resulting in a denial of service attack. Note that failure to use a try-with-resources statement cannot be considered a security vulnerability in and of itself, because it is possible to write a correctly structured group of nested try-catch-finally blocks guarding the resources that are in use (see ERR05-J. Do not let checked exceptions escape from a finally block). That said, failure to correctly handle such error cases is a common source of vulnerabilities. Use of a try-with-resources statement mitigates this issue by guaranteeing that the resources are managed correctly and that exceptions are never masked.