Prior to JDK 9, creating a FilePermission object canonicalized its pathname, and the implies and equals methods were based on this canonicalized pathname. For example, if "file" and "/path/to/current/directory/file" point to the same file in the file system, two FilePermission objects from these pathnames are equal and imply each other if their actions are also the same.

In JDK 9, the pathname will not be canonicalized by default. This means two FilePermission objects will not equal each other if one uses an absolute path and the other a relative path, or one uses a symbolic link and the other the target, or one uses a Windows long name and the other a DOS-style 8.3 name, even if they point to the same file in the file system.

A compatibility layer has been added to ensure that granting a FilePermission for a relative path will still permit applications to access the file with an absolute path (and vice versa). This works for the default Policy provider and the limited doPrivileged (http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/140) calls. For example, although a FilePermission on a file with a relative pathname of "a" no longer implies a FilePermission on the same file with an absolute pathname of "/pwd/a" (suppose "pwd" is the current working directory), granting code a FilePermission to read "a" allows that code to also read "/pwd/a" when a Security Manager is enabled. This compatibility layer does not cover translations between symbolic links and targets, or Windows long names and DOS-style 8.3 names, or any other different name forms that can be canonicalized to the same name.

A system property named jdk.io.permissionsUseCanonicalPath has been introduced. When it is set to "true", FilePermission will canonicalize its pathname as it did before JDK 9. The default value of this property is "false".

Another system property named jdk.security.filePermCompat has also been introduced. When set to "true", the compatibility layer described above will also apply to third-party Policy implementations. The default value of this property is "false".