Finalisers, closing files and streams

Question

In Joshua Bloch's book "Effective Java" item 7 second edition he advises to avoid using finally statements particularly for closing files he says "it is a grave error to depend on a finaliser to close files". Two pages later he says that one of the two use cases where it is a legitimate is in the explicit termination method pattern

Foo foo = new Foo();
try{
    ///process foo
} finally{
    foo.terminate();
}

Classes that have a termination method include FileInputStream and FileOutputStream. So wouldn't that mean closing a file in a finally statement?

1) Is Joshua Bloch's Item 7 contradictory?

2) Is the termination method pattern needed? Can't you write the code above without a finally statement that will have the same effect?

`InputStream` does not have a terminate method. Maybe you mean a `close()` method from the `Closeable` interface. — Sotirios Delimanolis, Mar 14 '13 at 16:14

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

2

I guess that the author meant that you should use a finally block code (this is not a finalizer) in try-catch to close/clean your resources instead of relieving on finalize method (this is a finalizer).

For more info about finalizers check When is the finalize() method called in Java?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

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answered Mar 14 '13 at 16:14

Luiggi Mendoza

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Finalisers, closing files and streams

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