Move a directory in Kotlin

This post will discuss how to move a directory in Kotlin.

1. Using `Files.move()` function

The standard solution for moving a directory in Kotlin is using the function Files.move(). It takes the path of the directory to be moved, the destination path, and an optional parameter to specify the move behavior. By default, the moving fails if the destination exists beforehand, unless the REPLACE_EXISTING option is used.

import java.io.File

import java.io.IOException

import java.nio.file.Files

import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption

fun main() {

val from = File("/path/to/src")

val to = File("/path/to/dest")

try {

Files.move(from.toPath(), to.toPath(), StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING)

println("Directory moved successfully.")

} catch (ex: IOException) {

ex.printStackTrace()

}

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The following solution iterates over files in the source directory and moves them individually. If the directory contains any subdirectories, recursively process all files within the subdirectory.

import java.io.File

import java.io.IOException

import java.nio.file.Files

import java.nio.file.Path

import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption

private fun moveDir(src: Path, dest: Path): Boolean {

if (src.toFile().isDirectory) {

for (file in src.toFile().listFiles()) {

moveDir(file.toPath(), dest.resolve(src.relativize(file.toPath())))

}

return try {

Files.move(src, dest, StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING)

true

} catch (e: IOException) {

false

}

fun main() {

val from = File("/path/to/src")

val to = File("/path/to/dest")

val success = moveDir(from.toPath(), to.toPath())

if (success) {

println("File Moved Successfully")

} else {

println("File Moved Failed")

}

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2. Using `File#renameTo()` function

We can also use the File#renameTo() function, which can move a directory within the same file system. However, this operation is platform-dependent, non-atomic, and fails when the destination directory already exists. Since it doesn’t even throw an exception on failure, always check the return value to ensure that the move operation is successful.

import java.io.File

fun main() {

val from = File("/path/to/src")

val to = File("/path/to/dest")

val success = from.renameTo(to)

if (success) {

println("Directory Moved Successfully")

} else {

println("Directory Moved Failed")

}

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That’s all about moving a directory in Kotlin.

Move a directory in Kotlin

1. Using Files.move() function

2. Using File#renameTo() function

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1. Using `Files.move()` function

2. Using `File#renameTo()` function