Get directory files list as a stream

[Dijkstra]

Hi
Probably at first glance the question seems very simple but it's no so.
The system I'm writing kinda content analytic tool which knows to work with File System as
one of possible content source repository.We need to run through provided File System root folder and process all files under the root.The system is required to be very responsive, the problems starts when the root folder is located on the remote machine and the number of files under each folder is extremely big (talking about millions of files under single folder)

The way I use to get all available files from folder is very straightforward

File.listFiles()

I'm afraid it's the only way java api provides to obtain the list of all files (names/file objects)

As you know the method returns list of file when it completed to read all of them.
My goal is to find a way to get this list kinda steam

Any thoughts, suggestions will be appreciated

[rfq]

I did not check that, but probably File.listFiles(FileFilter filter) can help. Run it in in a separate thread. Make FileFilter.accept(File path) to write path into a blocking queue and return false. In another thread, read paths from the queue.

[rfq]

File.listFiles() won't work as it calls File.list() internally.
But java 7 has new class Files with methods newDirectoryStream() and walkFileTree().

[Tolls]

Further proof that I really need to start doing more stuff in Java 7.

[Dijkstra]

File.listFiles() won't work as it calls File.list() internally.
But java 7 has new class Files with methods newDirectoryStream() and walkFileTree().

thanks, java 7 seems exactly what i'm looking for,good point