Having trouble with the renameTo() method in Windows

Question

Hi all,
The below code works perfectly well in netbeans but as shown as I try to call it from cmd prompt I get issues.
The below code is designed to move or delete log files from one area or another.
now if i try to delete the logs from command prompt I have no problem.
However when I tried to move the files by doing renameTo() I get a false back. And as this method seems to have no relevant error message, I am at a loss....
Now I have checked the permissions, this is not a problem (all users can edit the files, if I can't edit them why will let me delete them?), I have checked to make sure no duplicate files exist and they don't. i have also tried to move the files to different locations, same problem. The files are definitely not open.
I need the below to work on 1.5 due to compatibility issues with other programs.
Any ideas?
public class Main {
     * @param args the command line arguments
     * args[0] = Directory where files are to be processed from
     * args[1] = file extension to process
     * args[2] = Number of days to limit on. IE 31 means all files older than 31 days
     * args[3] = location of log file
     * args[4] = del/move. if del, files are deleted. if move, files are moved.
     * args[5] = Location of the new file. only applicable if file is moved.
    public static final String newLine = System.getProperty("line.separator").toString();
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            File file = new File(args[0]);
            FileNameFilter fileFilter = new FileNameFilter(args[1]);
            int days = Integer.parseInt(args[2]);
            File[] children = file.listFiles(fileFilter);
            // longs required because int overflow limit reached.
            long daysAgoPart1 = 1000 * 60 * 60;
            long daysAgoPart2 = 24 * days;
            long daysAgoPart3 = daysAgoPart1 * daysAgoPart2;
            long daysAgo = new Date().getTime() - (daysAgoPart3);
            // System.out.println(daysAgoPart3);
            // System.out.println(new Date().getTime());
            // System.out.println(daysAgo);
            // System.out.println(new Date().toString());
            Date limitDate = new Date(daysAgo);
            // System.out.println(new Date(new Date().getTime()).toString());
            //  System.out.println(limitDate.toString());
            for (int i = 0; i < children.length; i++) {
                if (children.lastModified() - limitDate.getTime() < 0) {
if (args[4].compareTo("del") == 0) {
printLog("Deleted file: " + children[i].getAbsolutePath(), args[3]);
children[i].delete();
} else if (args[4].compareTo("move") == 0){
String fileName = children[i].getAbsolutePath();
if (!children[i].canRead()){
printLog("Can't read: " + fileName, args[3]);
} else if (!children[i].canWrite()){
printLog("Can't write: " + fileName, args[3]);
if( (children[i].renameTo(new File(args[5] + children[i].getName())))){
printLog("Moved file "+ fileName, args[3]);
} else {
printLog("Failed to move file "+ fileName, args[3]);
} catch (Exception err) {
printLog(err.toString(), args[3]);
public static void printLog(String message, String logLoc) {
try {
File errLog = new File(logLoc);
FileWriter errFW = new FileWriter(errLog, true);
errFW.append(new Date().toString() + " " + message);
errFW.append(newLine);
errFW.close();
} catch (IOException errFWException) {
}Edited by: enema0007 on Sep 2, 2009 8:27 AM                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Answer 1

right I think I have worked out what I am doing wrong I think.....
I am calling the code with:
java -jar "deleteLogs.jar" "D:\TADDM" ".rar" 31 "D:\Working Files\deleteFilesLog.log" "move" "D:\Working Files\"
However when I go to create file its giving me:
D:\Working Files"logs.rar
Which is clearly not the correct file name....
So why is it removing the \ and not the "?