Calling delete() on a File object, are the effects immediately visible?

Question

If I call File.delete() are the effects on the underlying file system immediately visible? Can I write to the same file name in the same process/thread after without worrying about bad things happening? If not, is there a way to sync the underlying file system with just a File object?

Answer 1

File.delete() return a boolean telling you if the file has been correctly deleted.
So you could write something like :

if(yourFile.delete()) {
  //keep doing what you want. You are now sure file has been deleted !
}

Also, before writing a new file, you could check if a file with the same name already exists.

From Oracle documentation :

Returns:
true if and only if the file or directory is successfully deleted; false otherwise  

Oracle source

Also there is a SO thread that might help you