Java - How to rename, move a file

There are several ways to rename or move a file in Java. You can think of rename and move as the same thing, because moving means the same as renaming a file.

Rename or move files

You can move files using the File class.

Here is the code to rename the folder myfile to myfile_renamed.

File file = new File("/home/js/test/myfile");
boolean success = file.renameTo(new File("/home/js/test/myfile_renamed"));
if (!success) {
    System.out.println("Failed to rename to /home/js/test/myfile_renamed");
}

Rename can fail when an exception occurs, such as the file does not exist.

Rename or move files (Java7)

You can move files using the Files and Path classes provided by Java7.

Here is the code to rename the folder myfile to myfile_renamed.

try {
    Path filePath = Paths.get("/home/js/test/myfile");
    Path filePathToMove = Paths.get("/home/js/test/myfile_moved");
    Files.move(filePath, filePathToMove);
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Rename or move files (Commons IO)

You can move files using FileUtils of commons-io library.

Gradle project adds the following to dependencies of build.gradle.

dependencies {
  compile group: 'commons-io', name: 'commons-io', version: '2.6'
  ...
}

For projects that use other build systems such as Maven, refer to mvnrepository.com and configure it.

The following is an example of renaming the folder myfile to myfile_renamed using FileUtils.

try {
    File file = FileUtils.getFile("/home/js/test/myfile");
    File fileToMove = FileUtils.getFile("/home/js/test/myfile_renamed");
    FileUtils.moveDirectory(file, fileToMove);
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

moveDirectory() changes the name or location of a directory.

If you want to change the name or location of a file rather than a folder, you can use moveFile() like this:

try {
    File file = FileUtils.getFile("/home/js/test/text.txt");
    File fileToMove = FileUtils.getFile("/home/js/test/new_folder/renamed_text.txt");
    FileUtils.moveFile(file, fileToMove);
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

moveFile() moves the file to the path passed as an argument. If there is an uncreated directory in the moving path, the folder is automatically created. In the example above, if the /home/js/test/new_folder folder does not exist, create this folder and move the file.

If you do not want to create a folder that does not exist, you can use moveFileToDirectory(src, des, createDestDir) as follows. If false is passed to the last argument, createDestDir, a folder that does not exist is not created. Conversely, if you pass true, a folder is created.

try {
    File file = FileUtils.getFile("/home/js/test/text.txt");
    File fileToMove = FileUtils.getFile("/home/js/test/new_folder/text.txt");
    FileUtils.moveFileToDirectory(file, fileToMove, false);
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

When the folder does not exist, the file is not moved, and the following exception is raised.

java.io.FileNotFoundException: Destination directory '/home/js/test/new_folder/text.txt' does not exist [createDestDir=false]
at org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils.moveFileToDirectory(FileUtils.java:3042)
at example.io.RenameOrMove.main(RenameOrMove.java:46)

Reference

• mvnrepository.com
• Oracle