Manipulating Windows file permissions in Java

Question

Using Java how could I manipulate the access permissions of a file in Windows?

score 20 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 08 '13 at 16:44

20

If you are using Java 6, File class gives you setExecutable, setWritable, etc. See: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/io/File.html

On older Java versions this is not possible; you have to exec OS commands to do that:

Windows:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("attrib -r myFile");

Unix:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("chmod 777 myFile");

edited Mar 08 '13 at 16:44

Brian Agnew

answered Jul 29 '09 at 07:25

Zed

chmod won't work in windows, attrib -R or +R will change the read-only flag – Rich Seller Jul 29 '09 at 07:30
You may want to be a bit more restrictive with the Unix permissioning, btw. 777 gives everyone everything :-) – Brian Agnew Jul 29 '09 at 08:37
Obviously, 777 was an example. If another question is asked on how to use chmod or attrib, I'm more than happy to answer ;) – Zed Jul 29 '09 at 09:03
1

@Rich: Instead of `attrib` on Windows you probably want to use `cacls`. `cacls /?` in a command prompt for more information. – Grant Wagner Jul 29 '09 at 21:23

score 10 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 31 '18 at 10:10

10

The new Java 7 java.nio.file.attribute package makes all of this a lot easier. It provides views onto the complete set of file attributes, including Posix file permissions.

edited Oct 31 '18 at 10:10

dpr

answered Jul 29 '09 at 08:26

Brian Agnew

14

On Windows 7 attempting to get Posix attributes throws UnsupportedOperationException. – gerardw May 20 '15 at 12:06
3

How do we go about solving the problem in windows without having to run a command? Is there a common library that we can use to set permissions on all operating systems? – saibharath Oct 16 '15 at 19:01
This answer is a little bit short, but the java.nio.file.attribute package includes also ACL handling for Windows! – Mayra Delgado Jul 19 '17 at 12:37

2 Answers2