java file.delete() returns false but file.exists() returns true

Question

When I am trying to delete a file which is present in tomcat server conf/Catalina/localhost from java code then file.delete() always returns false. But if I am checking the

Answer 1

You must close the stream before deleting it.

e.g -

fileInputStream.close();
file.delete();

Answer 2

Try temporarily to delete the file with java.nio.Files.delete, adding a try/catch block; execute, see what exception is thrown...

Answer 3

It means that file is existing, but your java process dont have the permission to delete that.That is why delete function is returning false

Returns: true if and only if the file or directory is successfully deleted; false otherwise

Answer 4

If the directory is non-empty then File.delete() method will return false without throwing an Error.

You must cleanup the directory before deleting it.

Answer 5

There are any number of reasons why a file cannot be deleted; it may not exist, it may be a non-empty directory, you may not have closed all resources using it, and your program may not have permission to do so, to name a few.

Unfortunately the File.delete() method provides very little information as to why; it's pretty much up to you to poke around and figure it out. But there's good news; you don't want to use File in the first place.

Java 7 introduced the new java.nio.file package which is a much more robust file access API. It provides the concept of an abstract Path and separates concrete operations into the Files class, in particular it provides Files.delete() which is documented to raise clear exceptions describing the reasons deletion might fail.

Use Path and Files; you'll be glad you did.

Answer 6

before deleting the file your should close all the file reading and writing connection after 100% file will be deleted for example buffedreader.close() outputstream.close()