A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
if java.io.File.delete() fails, the result value is false. there is no further information about the reason why it failed. it would be better that this method would throw a IOException with the reason why it failed. (in my case, it failed because another process still had a reference to the file.)

JUSTIFICATION :
with the current behaviour (just return false if delete() failed) there is no information why the deletion failed.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
e.g. if the file can't be deleted because it's still in access by another process, don't just return false but throw an IOException with the reason (e.g. "File is still referenced by another process.")
ACTUAL -
the method just returns false.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
File file = new File("readme.txt");
boolean result = file.delete();
---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
you have to guess the reason why delete() failed.
(Incident Review ID: 225294) 
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Posted Date : 2005-08-25 19:32:52.0

N/A

It is not possible to change delete to throw IOException in this case because that would be incompatible. It would be possible to offer some other method that does throw under these circumstances, either in File or some new file handling facility.
  xxxxx@xxxxx   2003-11-12
This feature has been addressed by the new file system API defined by JSR-203. In particular, for a File f then f.toPath().delete() will throw an IOException if the delete fails.
Posted Date : 2009-02-16 13:44:04.0

what about File.erase() ?

Another problem with always returning a boolean is the
confusion that results if the file didn't exist.  I argue
that an IllegalStateException should be thrown if the file
doesn't exist.

Agree 100% with that. Causes an unbelievable grief!!!

I stumbled across this only a while ago and wonder while, > 2 years later, this is still open. Voted for it. Looking at java.io.File I see most essential methods throwing exceptions given something goes wrong - what kind of considerations keep this from happening with File.delete()?