Why Does `file.delete()` Fail Despite File Accessibility Checks?

Resolving Deletion Failure Despite File Accessibility Checks

In an attempt to delete a file after using FileOutputStream to write content, the file.delete() method returns false despite verifying file existence and accessibility through file.exists(), file.canRead(), file.canWrite(), and file.canExecute(). This behavior can be attributed to a peculiar bug in Java.

The writeContent() method is correctly utilized to write content to the file and close the stream. However, upon attempting file deletion, it fails due to the persistence of a reference to the file by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). To address this issue, System.gc() must be invoked before attempting deletion. This forces the JVM to perform garbage collection, releasing the reference to the file and enabling its deletion.

The revised code with System.gc() added includes:

finally
{
    try
    {
        in.close();
        in = null;
        out.flush();
        out.close();
        out = null;
        System.gc();
    }
    catch (IOException e)
    {
        logger.error(e.getMessage());
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

By invoking System.gc() in the finally block, the reference to the file is removed, allowing file.delete() to successfully delete the file.

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