Files deleting issue

Question

I have this code, which must remove files from the directory and the directory itself:

private static void removeTempFiles(File dir){
        if(!dir.exists())
            return;
        if(dir.isDirectory()){
            for(File f : dir.listFiles())
                removeTempFiles(f);
            dir.delete();
        }
        else {
            dir.delete();
        }
    }

but executing this code don't remove all the files. From time to time it removes all files with the folder or removes only a few files

UPD: here is my creating file code:

 File tempFolder = new File(tempPath);
    tempFolder.mkdir();
    tempFolder.mkdirs();    
    FileOutputStream fileOut = new            FileOutputStream(tempPath+"/"+fileName);    
        OutputStreamWriter osw = new OutputStreamWriter(fileOut, "windows-1251");
            try{
                osw.write(file64);
            } catch (IOException e){
                e.printStackTrace();
            }finally {
osw.close();
                fileOut.close();
            }

possible duplicate http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3775694/deleting-folder-from-java — nafas, Feb 27 '15 at 13:22
You mean http://stackoverflow.com/questions/779519/delete-files-recursively-in-java ? — merours, Feb 27 '15 at 13:23
You may want to check the value returned by `delete()` and log it if it returns false. — Ocracoke, Feb 27 '15 at 13:30
@KorayTugay everything allright about permissions. and, as you see above it removes files from time to time — Nikitin Mikhail, Feb 27 '15 at 15:22
@nafas thesolution descrybed there drops exception "unable to delete file" — Nikitin Mikhail, Feb 27 '15 at 15:23
@NikitinMikhail alright mate, I think I know what the problem is, answer these question: r those files are used from external processes? if so, then they've been locked by those. are they use internally? if so u haven't closed the buffers — nafas, Feb 27 '15 at 15:49
@nafas look. I've added some code. as for using them in other process - nope — Nikitin Mikhail, Mar 02 '15 at 07:20
@NikitinMikhail if the behaviour is random, try to add some waiting on ur program. — nafas, Mar 02 '15 at 13:50
@nafas imagine that this app will create and remove hundreds of files. what can heppen if I add waiting — Nikitin Mikhail, Mar 03 '15 at 07:39
@NikitinMikhail creating and deleting is risky. its not only about java. there are so many things in different levels can go wrong. if you have speed issue, try to create files concurrently but add wait after creating and deleting each file — nafas, Mar 03 '15 at 09:21
@nafas wait drops an exception 'java.lang.IllegalMonitorStateException at java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)'. I don't need treads — Nikitin Mikhail, Mar 03 '15 at 10:05

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 03 '15 at 19:51

1

On Windows, it's normal that file deletion does not always succeed, because files can be locked by various services running on the system (antivirus, search indexing etc.). You need to add a retry loop around every file deletion call.

answered Mar 03 '15 at 19:51

yole

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u mean do it until file.delete is true? – Nikitin Mikhail Mar 04 '15 at 10:08
Usually you don't want to make an infinite number of retries. 10 attempts is usually OK. – yole Mar 04 '15 at 10:09
@I've just create a loop until file.delete is true and it is still running. much more then 10 attempts – Nikitin Mikhail Mar 04 '15 at 10:25
Then the file is actually locked by some other process. You can use [Process Explorer](https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx) to check which process has opened the file. – yole Mar 04 '15 at 10:26
there are no processes using this file when my app is not running. and when the app is running, I mean when the deleting loop is executing some 'non-existent process' is using it, which, i guess is the app itself – Nikitin Mikhail Mar 04 '15 at 10:44
and what is interesting that only one of two created at one time files can't be removed. – Nikitin Mikhail Mar 04 '15 at 10:45

Files deleting issue

1 Answers1