Opening/Closing a FileInputStream

Question

Hi all,
We have a .properties file that should be checked from a servlet. The servlet will be hit by a load balancer every 5 seconds to see if the current node is active.
The old programmer in the company had it like this:
Properties propsFile = new Properties();
propsFile.load(new FileInputStream("some path"));
// check the propertyAs I understand, the above code leaves the file open all the time. Also is this a potential memory leak?
I'm thinking about changing it to
Properties propsFile = new Properties();
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("some path");
propsFile.load(fis);
// check the property
fis.close();is this better? Furthermore my manager wants me to check the last modified date of the file and do not read it if it has not changed since the last read.
Would this bring a performance improvement? Since the file is only a few bytes long isn't it the same to just read it in one go?
Thanks

Answer 1

dvm wrote:
I'm thinking about changing it to
fis.close();
is this better? Deffinitely, the number of files you can have open is limited.
Furthermore my manager wants me to check the last modified date of the file and do not read it if it has not changed since the last read.This may make your manager feel better.
Would this bring a performance improvement? It will bring a small saving which may or may not make a difference to your application.
Since the file is only a few bytes long isn't it the same to just read it in one go?If the file is less than 64 kB its size isn't important.
It could save around 0.1 ms to avoid read the filing, but parsing the file could take longer.
You should be able to write a quick program to read and close the file repeatedly (for about 10 seconds) to get an estimate of how long this takes on your system.