Commons IO is a package of Java utility classes for java.io's hierarchy.  
Classes in this package are considered to be so standard and of such high 
reuse as to justify existence in java.io.

Commons IO contains utility classes, stream implementations, file filters, 
and endian transformation classes.


Incompatible changes from 1.0
-----------------------------
Binary compatible - Yes

Source compatible - Yes

Semantic compatible - Yes, except:
- FileUtils.writeStringToFile()
    A null encoding previously used 'ISO-8859-1', now it uses the platform default
    Generally this will make no difference

- LockableFileWriter
    Improved validation and now create directories if necessary

plus these bug fixes may affect you semantically:
- FileUtils.touch()  (Bug fix 29821)
    Now creates the file if it did not previously exist

- FileUtils.toFile(URL) (Bug fix 32575)
    Now handles escape syntax such as %20

- FileUtils.sizeOfDirectory()  (Bug fix 36801)
    May now return a size of 0 if the directory is security restricted


Deprecations from 1.0
---------------------
- CopyUtils has been deprecated.
    Its methods have been moved to IOUtils.
    The new IOUtils methods handle nulls better, and have clearer names.

- IOUtils.toByteArray(String) - Use {@link String#getBytes()}
- IOUtils.toString(byte[]) - Use {@link String#String(byte[])}
- IOUtils.toString(byte[],String) - Use {@link String#String(byte[],String)}


Bug fixes from 1.0
------------------
- FileUtils - touch()  [29821]
    Now creates the file if it did not previously exist

- FileUtils - toFile(URL)  [32575]
    Now handles escape syntax such as %20

- FileFilterUtils - makeCVSAware(IOFileFilter)  [33023]
    Fixed bug that caused method to be completely broken

- CountingInputStream  [33336]
    Fixed bug that caused the count to reduce by one at the end of the stream

- CountingInputStream - skip(long)  [34311]
    Bytes from calls to this method were not previously counted

- NullOutputStream  [33481]
    Remove unnecessary synchronization

- AbstractFileFilter - accept(File, String)  [30992]
    Fixed broken implementation

- FileUtils  [36801]
    Previously threw NPE when listing files in a security restricted directory
    Now throw IOException with a better message

- FileUtils - writeStringToFile()
    Null encoding now correctly uses the platform default


Enhancements from 1.0
---------------------
- FilenameUtils - new class  [33303,29351]
    A static utility class for working with filenames
    Seeks to ease the pain of developing on Windows and deploying on Unix

- FileSystemUtils - new class  [32982,36325]
    A static utility class for working with file systems
    Provides one method at present, to get the free space on the filing system

- IOUtils - new public constants
    Constants for directory and line separators on Windows and Unix

- IOUtils - toByteArray(Reader,encoding)
    Handles encodings when reading to a byte array

- IOUtils - toCharArray(InputStream)  [28979]
          - toCharArray(InputStream,encoding)
          - toCharArray(Reader)
    Reads a stream/reader into a character array

- IOUtils - readLines(InputStream)  [36214]
          - readLines(InputStream,encoding)
          - readLines(Reader)
    Reads a stream/reader line by line into a List of Strings

- IOUtils - toInputStream(String)  [32958]
          - toInputStream(String,encoding)
    Creates an input stream that uses the string as a source of data

- IOUtils - writeLines(Collection,lineEnding,OutputStream)  [36214]
          - writeLines(Collection,lineEnding,OutputStream,encoding)
          - writeLines(Collection,lineEnding,Writer)
    Writes a collection to a stream/writer line by line

- IOUtils - write(...)
    Write data to a stream/writer (moved from CopyUtils with better null handling)

- IOUtils - copy(...)
    Copy data between streams (moved from CopyUtils with better null handling)

- IOUtils - contentEquals(Reader,Reader)
    Method to compare the contents of two readers

- FileUtils - toFiles(URL[])
    Converts an array of URLs to an array of Files

- FileUtils - copyDirectory()  [32944]
    New methods to copy a directory

- FileUtils - readFileToByteArray(File)
    Reads an entire file into a byte array

- FileUtils - writeByteArrayToFile(File,byte[])
    Writes a byte array to a file

- FileUtils - readLines(File,encoding)  [36214]
    Reads a file line by line into a List of Strings

- FileUtils - writeLines(File,encoding,List)
              writeLines(File,encoding,List,lineEnding)
    Writes a collection to a file line by line

- FileUtils - EMPTY_FILE_ARRAY
    Constant for an empty array of File objects

- ConditionalFileFilter - new interface  [30705]
    Defines the behavior of list based filters

- AndFileFilter, OrFileFilter  [30705]
    Now support a list of filters to and/or

- WildcardFilter  [31115]
    New filter that can match using wildcard file names

- FileFilterUtils - makeSVNAware(IOFileFilter)
    New method, like makeCVSAware, that ignores Subversion source control directories

- ClassLoaderObjectInputStream
    An ObjectInputStream that supports a ClassLoader

- CountingInputStream,CountingOutputStream - resetCount()  [28976]
    Adds the ability to reset the count part way through reading/writing the stream

- DeferredFileOutputStream - writeTo(OutputStream)  [34173]
    New method to allow current contents to be written to a stream

- DeferredFileOutputStream  [34142]
    Performance optimizations avoiding double buffering

- LockableFileWriter - encoding support [36825]
    Add support for character encodings to LockableFileWriter
    Improve the validation
    Create directories if necessary

- IOUtils and EndianUtils are no longer final  [28978]
    Allows developers to have subclasses if desired