RFR: 8366102: Clarification Needed: Symbolic Link Handling in File API Specifications [v4]

[Alan Bateman]

On Tue, 2 Sep 2025 20:23:26 GMT, Brian Burkhalter <bpb at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> Attempt to improve the verbiage of the `java.io.File` specification to make it clearer whether a given method operates only on an abstract pathname or on the actual file system entry it denotes.
>
> Brian Burkhalter has updated the pull request incrementally with one additional commit since the last revision:
> 
>   8366102: "denoted by" -> "located by"

> That definitely is more precise to me. So changed in [6d3587e](https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/commit/6d3587e9c13e50b883ead56bf600348fac5d9cd3).

Good, this looks much better. Do you mind checking the remaining usages of "denotes" in the method descriptions of methods that access the file system, specifically getCanonicalPath, length, delete, list/listFiles, renameTo, and createTempFile? If we change these to use "locates" then I think the wording will be clear throughout.

-------------

PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/27006#issuecomment-3247890783