Connections, streams, files, and other classes that implement the Closeable
interface or its super-interface,
AutoCloseable
, needs to be closed after use. Further, that close
call must be made in a finally
block otherwise
an exception could keep the call from being made. Preferably, when class implements AutoCloseable
, resource should be created using
"try-with-resources" pattern and will be closed automatically.
Failure to properly close resources will result in a resource leak which could bring first the application and then perhaps the box it's on to their knees.
private void readTheFile() throws IOException { Path path = Paths.get(this.fileName); BufferedReader reader = Files.newBufferedReader(path, this.charset); // ... reader.close(); // Noncompliant // ... Files.lines("input.txt").forEach(System.out::println); // Noncompliant: The stream needs to be closed } private void doSomething() { OutputStream stream = null; try { for (String property : propertyList) { stream = new FileOutputStream("myfile.txt"); // Noncompliant // ... } } catch (Exception e) { // ... } finally { stream.close(); // Multiple streams were opened. Only the last is closed. } }
private void readTheFile(String fileName) throws IOException { Path path = Paths.get(fileName); try (BufferedReader reader = Files.newBufferedReader(path, StandardCharsets.UTF_8)) { reader.readLine(); // ... } // .. try (Stream<String> input = Files.lines("input.txt")) { input.forEach(System.out::println); } } private void doSomething() { OutputStream stream = null; try { stream = new FileOutputStream("myfile.txt"); for (String property : propertyList) { // ... } } catch (Exception e) { // ... } finally { stream.close(); } }
Instances of the following classes are ignored by this rule because close
has no effect:
java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream
java.io.ByteArrayInputStream
java.io.CharArrayReader
java.io.CharArrayWriter
java.io.StringReader
java.io.StringWriter
Java 7 introduced the try-with-resources statement, which implicitly closes Closeables
. All resources opened in a try-with-resources
statement are ignored by this rule.
try (BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName))) { //... } catch ( ... ) { //... }