How to unmap a file from memory mapped using FileChannel in java?

Question

I am mapping a file("sample.txt") to memory using FileChannel.map() and then closing the channel using fc.close(). After this when I write to the file using FileOutputStream, I am getting the following error:

java.io.FileNotFoundException: sample.txt (The requested operation cannot be per formed on a file with a user-mapped section open)

File f = new File("sample.txt");
RandomAccessFile raf = new RandomAccessFile(f,"rw");
FileChannel fc = raf.getChannel();
MappedByteBuffer mbf = fc.map(FileChannel.MapMode.READ_ONLY, 0, fc.size());
fc.close();
raf.close();

FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(f);
fos.write(str.getBytes());
fos.close();

I presume this may be due to file being still mapped to the memory even after I close the FileChannel. Am I right?. If so, how can I "unmap" the file from memory?(I can't find any methods for this in the API). Thanks.

Edit: Looks like it(adding an unmap method) was submitted as RFE to sun some time back: http://bugs.sun.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=4724038

Answer 1

From the MappedByteBuffer javadoc:

A mapped byte buffer and the file mapping that it represents remain valid until the buffer itself is garbage-collected.

Try calling System.gc()? Even that's only a suggestion to the VM.

Answer 2

The mapped memory is used until it is freed by the garbage collector.

From FileChannel docs

A mapping, once established, is not dependent upon the file channel that was used to create it. Closing the channel, in particular, has no effect upon the validity of the mapping.

From MappedByteBuffer java doc

A mapped byte buffer and the file mapping that it represents remain valid until the buffer itself is garbage-collected.

So I would suggest ensuring there are no remaining references to the mapped byte buffer and then requesting a garbage collection.