Unable to programmatically delete keystore file

Question

Hi
I'm in the process of writing some junit tests for a Key Management helper class. What I want to do is initialise an empty keystore in setUp, add keys, get keys, delete keys, etc in the testXXX methods and delete the keystore file in tearDown. My tearDown looks like the following but is always failing as f.delete() is returning false (i.e. keystore file was not deleted).
     public void tearDown() {
          File f = new File(JUNIT_KEYSTORE);
          if(f.exists()) {
               if(f.delete() == false) {
                    fail("Unable to delete " + JUNIT_KEYSTORE);
          assertFalse(JUNIT_KEYSTORE + " exists.", new File(JUNIT_KEYSTORE).exists());
     }I'm working on WinXP with 1.4.1_06. When viewing the keystore file properties via explorer it is writeable, and I can delete the file manually. Also I can programatically delete other files, just not keystore files. My suspicion is that since the keystore is seen as such a sensitive and valuable resource that the java security model may be placing some restrictions on what operations can be performed on it through the File class API. However being a relative java.security novice, I would be grateful if someone more enlightened could provide some insight?
Thanks in advance
Rob

Answer 1

Hi
Adding the following lines to tearDown() indicates that the java security model is indeed preventing the keystore file from being deleted as an AccessControlException is being thrown. Note read and write are also blocked.
     FilePermission delete = new FilePermission(JUNIT_KEYSTORE, "delete");
     AccessController.checkPermission(delete);Next question : Is it possible to programmatically enable the 'delete' FilePermission? or can this only be done by adding a suitable entry to java.policy?
Rob