A Java program to demonstrate the use of java.io.File setReadOnly() method to make a file read only. Since JDK 1.6, a new setWritable() method is provided to make a file to be writable again.

Example

package com.mkyong;
 
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
 
public class FileReadAttribute
{
 
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
    {	
    	File file = new File("c:/file.txt");
 
    	//mark this file as read only, since jdk 1.2
    	file.setReadOnly();
 
    	if(file.canWrite()){
    	     System.out.println("This file is writable");
    	}else{
    	     System.out.println("This file is read only");
    	}
 
    	//revert the operation, mark this file as writable, since jdk 1.6
    	file.setWritable(true);
 
    	if(file.canWrite()){
    	     System.out.println("This file is writable");
    	}else{
    	     System.out.println("This file is read only");
    	}   	
    }
}

Output

This file is read only
This file is writable
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