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This noncompliant code example attempts to delete a specified file but gives no indication of its success. The Java Platform, Standard Edition 6, API Specification [API 2014] platform requires File.delete() to throw a SecurityException only when the program lacks authorization to delete the file [API 2014]. No other exceptions are thrown, so the deletion can silently fail.

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

Compliant Solution

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

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Path file = new File(args[0]).toPath(); try { Files.delete(file); } catch (IOException x) { System.out.println(" // Deletion failed"); // Handle, handle error }

The Java SE 7 Documentation [J2SE 2011] 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.

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

Rule	Severity	Likelihood	Remediation Cost	Priority	Level
FIO02-J	Medium	Probable	Medium	P8	L2

Automated Detection

Related Guidelines

Bibliography

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