Gradle failed to clean output directory

Question

Issue Description
Running "gradle clean" failed to artifacts from project output directory. After enable --stacktrace I can see below error

Caused by: org.gradle.api.file.UnableToDeleteFileException: Unable to delete file: C:\Users\xxxx\my-project-root\build\libs\some.jar

Here is my "gradle --version" output

------------------------------------------------------------
Gradle 5.1.1
------------------------------------------------------------

Build time:   2019-01-10 23:05:02 UTC
Revision:     3c9abb645fb83932c44e8610642393ad62116807

Kotlin DSL:   1.1.1
Kotlin:       1.3.11
Groovy:       2.5.4
Ant:          Apache Ant(TM) version 1.9.13 compiled on July 10 2018
JVM:          1.8.0_152 (Oracle Corporation 25.152-b16)
OS:           Windows 10 10.0 amd64

Initially my thought process was that some gradle daemon might be still be holding a reference to build artifacts. But after running "gradle --stop" I still get the same error for clean task.

Do note that if I open command prompt/powershell with administrative mode ":clean" tasks works fine.

I am not sure if anyone has faced this strange issue.

Solution
Please suggest if any.

Is it possible you compiled once as Administrator earlier? It would have generated that file and your normal user may not have permission to it. I'd expect that after a gradle clean and gradle --stop as Administrator you would be able to compile as a normal user. — Eric Anderson
– Eric Anderson, Commented Feb 5, 2019 at 5:53

Daniel Widdis · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-30 16:19:10Z

2

As mentioned by Eric Anderson in this comment:

Is it possible you compiled once as Administrator earlier? It would have generated that file and your normal user may not have permission to it. I'd expect that after a gradle clean and gradle --stop as Administrator you would be able to compile as a normal user.

I ran into this same problem after having done sudo gradle run earlier, and a sudo gradle clean fixed it.

answered Sep 30, 2022 at 16:19

Daniel Widdis

9,34513 gold badges50 silver badges70 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Eric Anderson · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-02 00:31:01Z

0

The file is likely open by another process. The easiest way to find the process keeping the file open is to use Process Explorer and "Find a Handle or DLL". Search for the file name. Then close the processes listed.

If you prefer a command-line tool, execute handle like:

handle c:\path\to\file

answered Feb 2, 2019 at 0:31

Eric Anderson

26.8k5 gold badges63 silver badges91 bronze badges

1 Comment

Arajit Over a year ago

Tried both of the above mentioned approach. Process Explorer says "0 matching items". And Handler says "No matching handlers found". Also i cant even delete it using windows del or rm(MINGW) . I got "Access is denied"

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Gradle failed to clean output directory

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related