java - Self-destructing application

Question

Along the lines of "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim"...

Would it be possible for an application to delete itself (or it's executable wrapper form) once a preset time of use or other condition has been reached?

Alternatively, what other approaches could be used to make the application useless?

The aim here is to have a beta expire, inviting users to get a more up-to-date version.

Answer 1

It is possible. To get around the lock on the JAR file, your application may need to spawn a background process that waits until the JVM has exited before deleting stuff.

However, this isn't bomb-proof. Someone could install the application and then make the installed files and directories read-only so that your application can't delete itself. The user (or their administrator) via the OS'es access control system has the final say on what files are created and deleted.