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javalinuxjava-ionfs

Any sure fire way to check file existence on Linux NFS?

I am working on a Java program that requires to check the existence of files.

Well, simple enough, the code make use calls to File.exists() for checking file existence. And the problem I have is, it reports false positive. That means the file does not actually exist but exists() method returns true. No exception was captured (at least no exception like "Stale NFS handle"). The program even managed to read the file through InputStream, getting 0 bytes as expected and yet no exception. The target directory is a Linux NFS. And I am 100% sure that the file being looked for never exists.

I know there are known bugs (kind of API limitation) exist for java.io.File.exists(). So I've then added another way round by checking file existence using Linux command ls. Instead of making call to File.exists() the Java code now runs a Linux command to ls the target file. If exit code is 0, file exists. Otherwise, file does not exist.

The number of times the issue is hit seems to be reduced with the introduction of the trick, but still pops. Again, no error was captured anywhere (stdout this time). That means the problem is so serious that even native Linux command won't fix for 100% of the time.

So there are couple of questions around:

  1. I believe Java's well known issue on File.exists() is about reporting false negative. Where file was reported to not exist but in fact does exist. As the API does not throws IOException for File.exists(), it choose to swallow the Exception in the case calls to OS's underlying native functions failed e.g. NFS timeout. But then this does not explain the false positive case I am having, given that the file never exist. Any throw on this one?
  2. My understanding on Linux ls exit code is, 0 means okay, equivalent to file exists. Is this understanding wrong? The man page of ls is not so clear on explaining the meaning of exit code: Exit status is 0 if OK, 1 if minor problems, 2 if serious trouble.
  3. All right, back to subject. Any surefire way to check File existence with Java on Linux? Before we see JDK7 with NIO2 officially released.
Solution

  • JDK7 was released a few months ago. There are exists and notExists methods in the Files class but they return a boolean rather than throwing an exception. If you really want an exception then use FileSystems.getDefault().provider().checkAccess(path) and it will throw an exception if the file does not exist.