How do I programmatically change file permissions?

In Java, I'm dynamically creating a set of files and I'd like to change the file permissions on these files on a linux/unix file system. I'd like to be able to execute the Java equivalent of chmod. Is that possible Java 5? If so, how?

I know in Java 6 the File object has setReadable()/setWritable() methods. I also know I could make a system call to do this, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Full control over file attributes is available in Java 7, as part of the "new" New IO facility (NIO.2). For example, POSIX permissions can be set on an existing file with setPosixFilePermissions(), or atomically at file creation with methods like createFile() or newByteChannel().

You can create a set of permissions using EnumSet.of(), but the helper method PosixFilePermissions.fromString() will uses a conventional format that will be more readable to many developers. For APIs that accept a FileAttribute, you can wrap the set of permissions with with PosixFilePermissions.asFileAttribute().

Set<PosixFilePermission> ownerWritable = PosixFilePermissions.fromString("rw-r--r--");
FileAttribute<?> permissions = PosixFilePermissions.asFileAttribute(ownerWritable);
Files.createFile(path, permissions);

In earlier versions of Java, using native code of your own, or exec-ing command-line utilities are common approaches.

In addition to erickson's suggestions, there's also jna, which allows you to call native libraries without using jni. It's shockingly easy to use, and I've used it on a couple of projects with great success.

The only caveat is that it's slower than jni, so if you're doing this to a very large number of files that might be an issue for you.

(Editing to add example)

Here's a complete jna chmod example:

import com.sun.jna.Library;
import com.sun.jna.Native;

public class Main {
    private static CLibrary libc = (CLibrary) Native.loadLibrary("c", CLibrary.class);

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        libc.chmod("/path/to/file", 0755);
    }
}

interface CLibrary extends Library {
    public int chmod(String path, int mode);
}

Prior to Java 6, there is no support of file permission update at Java level. You have to implement your own native method or call Runtime.exec() to execute OS level command such as chmod.

Starting from Java 6, you can useFile.setReadable()/File.setWritable()/File.setExecutable() to set file permissions. But it doesn't simulate the POSIX file system which allows to set permission for different users. File.setXXX() only allows to set permission for owner and everyone else.

Starting from Java 7, POSIX file permission is introduced. You can set file permissions like what you have done on *nix systems. The syntax is :

File file = new File("file4.txt");
file.createNewFile();
 
Set<PosixFilePermission> perms = new HashSet<>();
perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_READ);
perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_WRITE);
 
Files.setPosixFilePermissions(file.toPath(), perms);

This method can only be used on POSIX file system, this means you cannot call it on Windows system.

For details on file permission management, recommend you to read this post.

For Windows 7 with NIO 2:

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
	Path file = Paths.get("c:/touch.txt");
	AclFileAttributeView aclAttr = Files.getFileAttributeView(file, AclFileAttributeView.class);
	System.out.println(aclAttr.getOwner());
	for (AclEntry aclEntry : aclAttr.getAcl()) {
		System.out.println(aclEntry);
	}
	System.out.println();
	
	UserPrincipalLookupService upls = file.getFileSystem().getUserPrincipalLookupService();
	UserPrincipal user = upls.lookupPrincipalByName(System.getProperty("user.name"));
	AclEntry.Builder builder = AclEntry.newBuilder();       
	builder.setPermissions( EnumSet.of(AclEntryPermission.READ_DATA, AclEntryPermission.EXECUTE, 
			AclEntryPermission.READ_ACL, AclEntryPermission.READ_ATTRIBUTES, AclEntryPermission.READ_NAMED_ATTRS,
			AclEntryPermission.WRITE_ACL, AclEntryPermission.DELETE
	));
	builder.setPrincipal(user);
	builder.setType(AclEntryType.ALLOW);
	aclAttr.setAcl(Collections.singletonList(builder.build()));
}

Just to update this answer unless anyone comes across this later, since JDK 6 you can use

File file = new File('/directory/to/file');
file.setWritable(boolean);
file.setReadable(boolean);
file.setExecutable(boolean);

you can find the documentation on Oracle File(Java Platform SE 7). Bear in mind that these commands only work if the current working user has ownership or write access to that file. I am aware that OP wanted chmod type access for more intricate user configuration. these will set the option across the board for all users.

If you want to set 777 permission to your created file than you can use the following method:

public void setPermission(File file) throws IOException{
    Set<PosixFilePermission> perms = new HashSet<>();
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_READ);
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_WRITE);
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_EXECUTE);
	
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_READ);
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_WRITE);
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_EXECUTE);
	
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_READ);
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_WRITE);
    perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_EXECUTE);

    Files.setPosixFilePermissions(file.toPath(), perms);
}

You can use the methods of the File class: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/io/File.html

Apache ant chmod (not very elegant, adding it for completeness) credit shared with @msorsky

	Chmod chmod = new Chmod();
	chmod.setProject(new Project());
	FileSet mySet = new FileSet();
	mySet.setDir(new File("/my/path"));
	mySet.setIncludes("**");
	chmod.addFileset(mySet);
	chmod.setPerm("+w");
	chmod.setType(new FileDirBoth());
	chmod.execute();

for Oralce Java 6:

private static int chmod(String filename, int mode) {
    try {
        Class<?> fspClass = Class.forName("java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences");
        Method chmodMethod = fspClass.getDeclaredMethod("chmod", String.class, Integer.TYPE);
        chmodMethod.setAccessible(true);
        return (Integer)chmodMethod.invoke(null, filename, mode);
    } catch (Throwable ex) {
        return -1;
    }
}

works under solaris/linux.

There is an example class on Oracle Docs which works very much similar to the UNIX chmod. It works with java se 7+ though.

simple java code  for change file permission in java  

   String path="D:\\file\\read.txt";
        File file=new File(path);
        if (file.exists()) {
            System.out.println("read="+file.canRead());
            System.out.println("write="+file.canWrite());
            System.out.println("Execute="+file.canExecute());
            file.setReadOnly();
        }     

Reference : how to change file permission in java

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.nio.file.attribute.FileAttribute;
import java.nio.file.attribute.PosixFileAttributes;
import java.nio.file.attribute.PosixFilePermission;
import java.nio.file.attribute.PosixFilePermissions;
import java.util.Set;

public class FileAndDirectory1 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        
        File file = new File("fileTest1.txt");
        System.out.println(file.getAbsoluteFile());
        try {
            //file.createNewFile();
            if(!file.exists())
            {
                //PosixFilePermission is an enum class, PosixFilePermissions is a final class
                
                //create file permissions from string
                Set<PosixFilePermission> filePermissions = PosixFilePermissions.fromString("---------"/* "rwxrwxrwx" */);
                FileAttribute<?> permissions = PosixFilePermissions.asFileAttribute(filePermissions);
                Files.createFile(file.toPath(), permissions);
                // printing the permissions associated with the file
                System.out.println("Executable: " + file.canExecute());
                System.out.println("Readable: " + file.canRead());
                System.out.println("Writable: "+ file.canWrite());

                file.setExecutable(true);
                file.setReadable(true);
                file.setWritable(true);
            }
            else
            {
                //modify permissions
                
                //get the permission using file attributes
                Set<PosixFilePermission> perms = Files.readAttributes(file.toPath(), PosixFileAttributes.class).permissions();
                perms.remove(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_WRITE);

                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_READ);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_EXECUTE);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_WRITE);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_READ);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_EXECUTE);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_WRITE);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_READ);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_EXECUTE);
                Files.setPosixFilePermissions(file.toPath(), perms);

                System.out.println("Executable: " + file.canExecute());
                System.out.println("Readable: " + file.canRead());
                System.out.println("Writable: "+ file.canWrite());

                file.delete();
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        Path path = Paths.get(String.valueOf(file));
        System.out.println(path);
    }
}