Continuum will not successfully delete build directories containing symbolic links

FileUtils.cleanDirectory() will not remove symbolic links if they are located in the directory that it is trying to clean.

This occurs for me when you set up a Shell project with the "Build Fresh" option checked.

The project I'm building is invoked with a shell script. I download the shell script through continuum and it kicks off the first build successfully.

On the next scheduled build, the following message occurs:

—

org.codehaus.plexus.taskqueue.execution.TaskExecutionException: Error executing action 'clean-working-directory'
at org.apache.maven.continuum.buildcontroller.DefaultBuildController.performAction(DefaultBuildController.java:432)
at org.apache.maven.continuum.buildcontroller.DefaultBuildController.cleanWorkingDirectory(DefaultBuildController.java:361)
at org.apache.maven.continuum.buildcontroller.DefaultBuildController.build(DefaultBuildController.java:103)
at org.apache.maven.continuum.buildcontroller.BuildProjectTaskExecutor.executeTask(BuildProjectTaskExecutor.java:50)
at org.codehaus.plexus.taskqueue.execution.ThreadedTaskQueueExecutor$ExecutorRunnable$1.run(ThreadedTaskQueueExecutor.java:116)
at edu.emory.mathcs.backport.java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:442)
at edu.emory.mathcs.backport.java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:176)
at edu.emory.mathcs.backport.java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:987)
at edu.emory.mathcs.backport.java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:528)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Directory /scratch/home/srp/tomcat/apache-tomcat-5.5.17/webapps/continuum/WEB-INF/working-directory/1/dir/Linux/external/TclTk/8.5a4/bin unable to be deleted.
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.deleteDirectory(FileUtils.java:1332)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.forceDelete(FileUtils.java:1158)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.cleanDirectory(FileUtils.java:1371)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.deleteDirectory(FileUtils.java:1328)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.forceDelete(FileUtils.java:1158)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.cleanDirectory(FileUtils.java:1371)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.deleteDirectory(FileUtils.java:1328)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.forceDelete(FileUtils.java:1158)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.cleanDirectory(FileUtils.java:1371)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.deleteDirectory(FileUtils.java:1328)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.forceDelete(FileUtils.java:1158)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.cleanDirectory(FileUtils.java:1371)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.deleteDirectory(FileUtils.java:1328)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.forceDelete(FileUtils.java:1158)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.cleanDirectory(FileUtils.java:1371)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.deleteDirectory(FileUtils.java:1328)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.forceDelete(FileUtils.java:1158)
at org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils.cleanDirectory(FileUtils.java:1371)
at org.apache.maven.continuum.core.action.CleanWorkingDirectoryAction.execute(CleanWorkingDirectoryAction.java:60)
at org.apache.maven.continuum.buildcontroller.DefaultBuildController.performAction(DefaultBuildController.java:406)
... 9 more

–

A search in the directory mentioned above show a symbolic link that hasn't been deleted.

The problem occurs because the Plexus class FileUtils.cleanDirectory() doesn't work as advertised. I reported that bug on the Plexu Utils Jira, which you can see here:

http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/PLXUTILS-28

I was able to incorporate the fix in Continuum by creating a new class ContinuumFileUtils, and changed all occurances of FileUtils.cleanDirectory to call the new class instead. I've uploaded a copy of the file along with this bug report.

While I think it's likely that this bug will eventually get fixed in Plexus, it's breaking Continuum builds now, so I think this needs to be fixed.