How can I tell file deletion from directory deletion using JDK 7?

Question

I am using JDK 7's WatchService to monitor directories.

The ENTRY_DELETE event tells me an entry has been deleted. I can get the name of that entry doing something similar to:

WatchEvent<Path> ev = cast(event);
Path name = ev.context();
Path child = dir.resolve(name);

I want to know if the deleted entry was a file or folder. Naturally, I tried child.isDirectory() but that didn't work, of course, because the element doesn't exist anymore.

Is there any way, without heuristics, telling if the deleted element was a file or a directory?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, since WatchService is built on top of the native OS's file event service, it is limited by the information the native service provides. Linux's inotify does indicate what type of filesystem object was deleted, but Microsoft's FileSystemWatcher just gives the name.