stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · RuntimeIOException

Exception in printToFile " + file.getAbsolutePath()

Error message

Exception in printToFile " + file.getAbsolutePath()

What it means

StringUtils.printToFile(File, String, boolean append) writes a message to a file via FileWriter/PrintWriter. Any exception during opening or writing is rethrown as RuntimeIOException('Exception in printToFile <file.getAbsolutePath()>'), so callers get a uniform runtime exception when the write fails.

Solutions

1. Ensure the parent directory exists (file.getParentFile().mkdirs()) before calling printToFile
2. Verify write permission on the target directory and that the path is not a directory itself
3. Check available disk space/quota; inspect the cause of the RuntimeIOException for the exact IOException

Example fix

// before
StringUtils.printToFile(new File("out/result.txt"), text, false); // out/ missing
// after
File f = new File("out/result.txt");
f.getParentFile().mkdirs();
StringUtils.printToFile(f, text, false);

File f = new File(path);
if (f.isDirectory()) throw new IllegalStateException("Output path is a directory: " + f);
File parent = f.getParentFile();
if (parent != null && !parent.isDirectory()) parent.mkdirs();

try {
  StringUtils.printToFile(file, message, append);
} catch (RuntimeIOException e) {
  log.error("Failed writing " + file + ": " + e.getCause());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling printToFile when the target file cannot be created or written: nonexistent parent directory, no write permission, the path is a directory, or disk is full.

Common situations: Logging output to a directory that was never created; writing to read-only volumes in containers; output path pointing at an existing directory; exceeding disk quota on shared clusters.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to write file", "Could not save figure", "Error saving remote file" — file write failed: causes and fixes across languages and libraries — this error's family across 38 libraries.

Related errors

• Error creating data exporter
• Serializing classifier to
• Error opening output file
• RuntimeIOException wrapping IOException from write
• Exception: in printToFile

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6dad99b687a07383. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/util/StringUtils.java:1248

      if (pw != null) {
        pw.flush();
        pw.close();
      }
    }
  }

  /**
   * Prints to a file.  If the file already exists, appends if
   * {@code append=true}, and overwrites if {@code append=false}.
   */
  public static void printToFile(File file, String message, boolean append) {
    PrintWriter pw = null;
    try {
      Writer fw = new FileWriter(file, append);
      pw = new PrintWriter(fw);
      pw.print(message);
    } catch (Exception e) {
      throw new RuntimeIOException("Exception in printToFile " + file.getAbsolutePath(), e);
    } finally {
      IOUtils.closeIgnoringExceptions(pw);
    }
  }


  /**
   * Prints to a file.  If the file does not exist, rewrites the file;
   * does not append.
   */
  public static void printToFile(File file, String message) {
    printToFile(file, message, false);
  }

  /**
   * Prints to a file.  If the file already exists, appends if
   * {@code append=true}, and overwrites if {@code append=false}.
   */

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