How To Make A File Read Only In Java

A Java program to demonstrate the use of java.io.File setReadOnly() method to make a file read only. Since JDK 1.6, a new setWritable() method is provided to make a file to be writable again.

Example

package com.mitul;
 
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
 
public class FileReadAttribute
{
 
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
    { 
     File file = new File("c:/file.txt");
 
     //mark this file as read only, since jdk 1.2
     file.setReadOnly();
 
     if(file.canWrite()){
          System.out.println("This file is writable");
     }else{
          System.out.println("This file is read only");
     }
 
     //revert the operation, mark this file as writable, since jdk 1.6
     file.setWritable(true);
 
     if(file.canWrite()){
          System.out.println("This file is writable");
     }else{
          System.out.println("This file is read only");
     }    
    }
}