Baffled by FilePermission access denied

Question

I am trying to read through a directory and check whether I can read the files located in that directory. When I don't use a security manager the canRead() function always returns true. So I'm trying to implement a security manager and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.
I created the following policy file. Originally I entered a code base, but with this version I removed it to try and narrow down the problem.
grant {
  permission java.io.FilePermission "<<ALL FILES>>", "read";
};The following command is used:
java -cp "C:\Documents and Settings\Carl\My Documents\Java\Baseline\DirectoryList" -Djava.security.manager
-D.security.policy=directoryList.policy directoryList I also provide two parameters. The first is the output file and the second is the directory where I want the program to start. I broke these out to help the readability of the java command.
"C:\\Documents and Settings\\Carl\\My
Documents\\Java\\Baseline\\DirectoryList\\output"
"C:\\Documents and Settings\\Carl\\My
Documents\\Java\\Baseline\\DirectoryList"I have tried countless varieties and always receive the following error:
Security Exceptionjava.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.io.FilePermission C:\Documents and Settings\Carl\My Documents\Java\Baseline\DirectoryList read)The portion of my code that is throwing the error is:
        File start  = new File ( args[j] );
        File list[] = start.listFiles();I have access to the directory and files I'm trying to read since they are located with the class files. So really I should have two ways of getting authorization to read these files; however, nothing seems to work. I've looked through the forums and did the tutorials to see if I missed anything and can't find the problem. I would really appreciate any assistance you could provide.

Answer 1

My testing has shown that the File.canRead() method returns true even if I don't have read access to the file. I've setup two files on my Windows system and removed access by using a different login id. The windows permissions allow me to list the file, but do not allow me to read the file. I've tried this with j2sdk1.4.2_01 and jdk1.5.0_05. Does 1.6 perform the security checking?
"f" is my file object   
boolean haveAccess = false;
    try{
         if ( f.canRead() ) {
            haveAccess = true;
         else {
            System.out.println ( "canRead() method can't read  " + f );
            haveAccess = false;
    catch ( SecurityException se ) {
         System.out.println(f + "\t" + f.lastModified() + "\t" + f.length() + se );
         haveAccess = false;
    }This code always returns true.
For my program, I don't want to open the files. I just want to scan the directory and determine whether anyone can read the files or only list the directory contents. I would also like to make this test even if the file is in use. So the attempt to read the file would give me the wrong answer if someone else had it in use. I want to find out if I'm ever allowed to read the document. Not just at the very minute I scan the file.
Basically, I want to scan a directory and determine the file permissions of each file. Can I list it, read it, or write to it.
Thanks