A standalone program that deletes a specified file or directory

       
 
/*
 * Copyright (c) 2004 David Flanagan.  All rights reserved.
 * This code is from the book Java Examples in a Nutshell, 3nd Edition.
 * It is provided AS-IS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY either expressed or implied.
 * You may study, use, and modify it for any non-commercial purpose,
 * including teaching and use in open-source projects.
 * You may distribute it non-commercially as long as you retain this notice.
 * For a commercial use license, or to purchase the book, 
 * please visit http://www.davidflanagan.com/javaexamples3.
 */

import java.io.File;

/**
 * This class is a static method delete() and a standalone program that deletes
 * a specified file or directory.
 */
public class Delete {
  /**
   * This is the main() method of the standalone program. After checking it
   * arguments, it invokes the Delete.delete() method to do the deletion
   */
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    if (args.length != 1) { // Check command-line arguments
      System.err.println("Usage: java Delete <file or directory>");
      System.exit(0);
    }
    // Call delete() and display any error messages it throws.
    try {
      delete(args[0]);
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
      System.err.println(e.getMessage());
    }
  }

  /**
   * The static method that does the deletion. Invoked by main(), and designed
   * for use by other programs as well. It first makes sure that the specified
   * file or directory is deleteable before attempting to delete it. If there is
   * a problem, it throws an IllegalArgumentException.
   */
  public static void delete(String filename) {
    // Create a File object to represent the filename
    File f = new File(filename);

    // Make sure the file or directory exists and isn't write protected
    if (!f.exists())
      fail("Delete: no such file or directory: " + filename);
    if (!f.canWrite())
      fail("Delete: write protected: " + filename);

    // If it is a directory, make sure it is empty
    if (f.isDirectory()) {
      String[] files = f.list();
      if (files.length > 0)
        fail("Delete: directory not empty: " + filename);
    }

    // If we passed all the tests, then attempt to delete it
    boolean success = f.delete();

    // And throw an exception if it didn't work for some (unknown) reason.
    // For example, because of a bug with Java 1.1.1 on Linux,
    // directory deletion always fails
    if (!success)
      fail("Delete: deletion failed");
  }

  /** A convenience method to throw an exception */
  protected static void fail(String msg) throws IllegalArgumentException {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(msg);
  }
}

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A standalone program that deletes a specified file or directory : Directory « File Input Output « Java

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