java - File.createNewFile() thowing IOException No such file or directory

Question

I have a method that writes to a log file. If the file exists it should append to it, if not then I want it to create a new file.

if (!file.exists() && !file.createNewFile()) {
    System.err.println("Error with output file: " + outFile
        + "
Cannot create new file.");
    continue;
}

I have that to check that a file can be created. file is a java.io.File object. createNewFile is throwing an IOException: No such file or directory. This method has been working perfectly since I wrote it a few weeks ago and has only recently starting doing this although I don't know what I could have changed. I have checked, the directory exists and I have write permissions for it, but then I thought it should just return false if it can't make the file for any reason.

Is there anything that I am missing to get this working?

Answer 1

try to ensure the parent directory exists with:

file.getParentFile().mkdirs()