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Java's file-manipulation functions methods often indicate failure with a return value , rather than instead of throwing an exception. The Java Tutorial for Java 7 notes:

Prior to the Java SE 7 release, the java.io.File class was the mechanism used for file I/O, but it had several drawbacks.

Many methods didn't throw exceptions when they failed, so it was impossible to obtain a useful error message. For example, if a file deletion failed, the program would receive a "delete fail" but wouldn't know if it was because the file didn't exist, the user didn't have permissions, or there was some other problem.

Consequently, file operations can silently fail if the methods' return values are ignoredConsequently, programs that ignore the return values from file operations often fail to detect that those operations have failed. Java programs must check the return values of method methods that perform file I/O (this . This is a specific instance of rule EXP00-J. Do not ignore values returned by methods.)

Noncompliant Code Example (delete())

This noncompliant code example attempts to delete a specified file , but gives no indication of its success. The [API 2006] Java platform requires File.delete() to only throw a SecurityException if only when the program is not authorized lacks authorization to delete the file [API 2014]. No other exceptions are thrown; , so the deletion can silently fail.

File file = /* initialize */new File(args[0]);
file.delete();

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution checks the return value of delete().:

File file = new File(args[0]"file");
if (!file.delete()) {
  System.out.println("// Deletion failed");, handle error
}

Compliant Solution

...

This compliant solution uses the java.nio.file.Files.delete() method from Java 1.SE 7 to delete the file.:

Code Block
bgColor #ccccFF
Path file = new File("file"args[0]).toPath(); try { Files.delete(file); } catch (IOException x) { // Deletion failed, handle error }

...

The Java™ Java SE 7 Documentation \ [[J2SE 2011|AA. Bibliography#J2SE 11] \] defines {{Files.delete()}} to throw the following exceptions:

Exception	Reason
NoSuchFileException	File does not exist
DirectoryNotEmptyException	File is a directory and could not otherwise be deleted because the directory is not empty
IOException	An I/O error occurs
SecurityException	In the case of the default provider

,

and a security manager is installed, the SecurityManager.checkDelete(String) method is invoked to check delete access to the file

Because SecurityException is a runtime exception, it need not be declared. Because NoSuchFileException and DirectoryNotExmptyException both inherit from IOException, they will be caught by the compliant solution's catch clause.

Risk Assessment

Failure to check the return values of methods that perform file I/O can result in unexpected behavior.

Automated Detection

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Tool	Version	Checker	Description
CodeSonar	Include Page CodeSonar_V CodeSonar_V	JAVA.FUNCS.IRV	Ignored Return Value (Java)
SonarQube	Include Page SonarQube_V SonarQube_V	S899

Related Guidelines

Bibliography

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