[HBASE-7881] Add FSUtils method delete(Path f, boolean recursive)

• Type: Sub-task
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Duplicate
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Ted Yu
• Created: 19/Feb/13 19:21
• Updated: 16/Jun/22 01:23
• Resolved: 19/Feb/13 20:48

Description

From Matteo (https://reviews.apache.org/r/9416/diff/2/?file=258262#file258262line402):

looking at the source, it seems that checking the return value and throw an exception seems a good way to shoot ourselves in the foot. I've added that check in other places and not I'm regretting that...

because a return false doesn't really mean I'm not able to delete the file/dir.
maybe the file is already deleted by someone else, or renamed...
You want to throw an exception only if the file/dir is still there...

so if we don't trust that the API will provide an exception is case of failure
we should do something like

if (!fs.delete(workingDir, true)) {
  // Make sure that the dir is still there
  if (fs.exists(workingDir)) { 
    throw new IOException("Unable to delete " + workingDir);
  }
}

We can add the following method to FSUtils:
void delete(Path f, boolean recursive) throws IOException;