Create a file on Linux using Java code

[Santosh Kumar Nayak]

I am trying to create a file on Linux machines using Java code.

Using the code I am able to create a file on Windows but the jar does not work on Linux platform.

Cant we create a flat file on Linux using the same code ?

[Campbell Ritchie]

Please explain more; we can only help if we know all the details. There should not be any difference between creating a file on Windows® and on Linux; the PATHs have a different format, obviously. Tell us how you are trying to create such a file. Also find out whether the location you are trying to create it is accessible for writing or not.

[Santosh Kumar Nayak]

file.createNewFile();
fileWritter = new FileWriter(file);
bw = new BufferedWriter(fileWritter);
bw.write(text);
bw.newLine();

[Mandar Khire]

hi,

the jar does not work on Linux platform.

Does Linux machine configured properly to run simple java code/jar?

Thanks Campbell Ritchie for clarifying about Path.

Thanks Santosh Kumar Nayak for sharing small piece of code.

I write following code with the help of Google search:-

import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
public class createFile {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		String osname = System.getProperty("os.name", "").toLowerCase();
		if (osname.startsWith("windows")) {
	        String text = "Hello world Windows";
	        try {
	            File file = new File("C:/example.txt");
	            BufferedWriter output = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(file));
	            output.write(text);
	            output.close();
	        } catch ( IOException e ) {
	            e.printStackTrace();
	        }
		} else if (osname.startsWith("linux")) {	
	        String text = "Hello world Linux";
	        try {
	            File file = new File("/root/Desktop/example.txt");
	            BufferedWriter output = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(file));
	            output.write(text);
	            output.close();
	        } catch ( IOException e ) {
	            e.printStackTrace();
	        }
		} else {
			System.out.println("Sorry, your operating system is different");	
		}
	}
}

Might it helpful for newbies!

[Santosh Kumar Nayak]

Linux machine is configured properly but the above code is not able to generate a *.txt file on Linux Box.

[fred rosenberger]

are the permissions on the directory set to allow writing to the dir?

[Campbell Ritchie]

/root/Desktop???

That is most unlikely to be accessible for writing. I suggest you change /root to a tilde and try writing it on your desktop ~/desktop/...
Please confirm whether it is desktop or Desktop; it matters on Linux.

That code needs a bit of editing. You don't need the two try blocks; apart from the names of the files they are identical. You should also close the writers in a finally (or use try‑with‑resources).

[Tim Holloway]

I think the "tilde" thing is a shell artifact and it won't work properly within Java program code. However there's a java.lang.System Property that returns the path of the current user's home directory. It can be used to construct an appropriate File object. Something similar to:

File homeDir = System.getProperty("home.dir");
File file = new File (homeDir, "example.txt");
... etc

Note, by the way that that particular code works equally well regardless of whether it's running on Windows or on Linux.