listFiles() of File not working on symbolic links?

file-io, java, symlink

Solution

According to what I've seen while Googling this puzzling behavior, Java requires that you call `.getCanonicalFile()` on a `File` whose path contains a link before you can use it in other file operations.

So:

File directory = new File("/path/symlink/foo/bar").getCanonicalFile();
String[] files = directory.listFiles();

Problem

I have the following File object pointing to a directory via symbolic link, ``` File directory = new File("/path/symlink/foo/bar"); String[] files = directory.listFiles(); ``` listFiles() returns null, is this because of the symlink? if yes, how will I go about this if I really want to list the files in bar using the path that contains a symlink?

Original source