How do I programmatically change file permissions?

Full control over file attributes is available in Java 7, as part of the "new" New IO facility (NIO.2). For example, POSIX permissions can be set on an existing file with setPosixFilePermissions(), or atomically at file creation with methods like createFile() or newByteChannel().

You can create a set of permissions using EnumSet.of(), but the helper method PosixFilePermissions.fromString() will uses a conventional format that will be more readable to many developers. For APIs that accept a FileAttribute, you can wrap the set of permissions with with PosixFilePermissions.asFileAttribute().

Set<PosixFilePermission> ownerWritable = PosixFilePermissions.fromString("rw-r--r--");
FileAttribute<?> permissions = PosixFilePermissions.asFileAttribute(ownerWritable);
Files.createFile(path, permissions);

In earlier versions of Java, using native code of your own, or exec-ing command-line utilities are common approaches.

In addition to erickson's suggestions, there's also jna, which allows you to call native libraries without using jni. It's shockingly easy to use, and I've used it on a couple of projects with great success.

The only caveat is that it's slower than jni, so if you're doing this to a very large number of files that might be an issue for you.

(Editing to add example)

Here's a complete jna chmod example:

import com.sun.jna.Library;
import com.sun.jna.Native;

public class Main {
    private static CLibrary libc = (CLibrary) Native.loadLibrary("c", CLibrary.class);

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        libc.chmod("/path/to/file", 0755);
    }
}

interface CLibrary extends Library {
    public int chmod(String path, int mode);
}

Just to update this answer unless anyone comes across this later, since JDK 6 you can use

File file = new File('/directory/to/file');
file.setWritable(boolean);
file.setReadable(boolean);
file.setExecutable(boolean);

you can find the documentation on Oracle File(Java Platform SE 7). Bear in mind that these commands only work if the current working user has ownership or write access to that file. I am aware that OP wanted chmod type access for more intricate user configuration. these will set the option across the board for all users.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.nio.file.attribute.FileAttribute;
import java.nio.file.attribute.PosixFileAttributes;
import java.nio.file.attribute.PosixFilePermission;
import java.nio.file.attribute.PosixFilePermissions;
import java.util.Set;

public class FileAndDirectory1 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        
        File file = new File("fileTest1.txt");
        System.out.println(file.getAbsoluteFile());
        try {
            //file.createNewFile();
            if(!file.exists())
            {
                //PosixFilePermission is an enum class, PosixFilePermissions is a final class
                
                //create file permissions from string
                Set<PosixFilePermission> filePermissions = PosixFilePermissions.fromString("---------"/* "rwxrwxrwx" */);
                FileAttribute<?> permissions = PosixFilePermissions.asFileAttribute(filePermissions);
                Files.createFile(file.toPath(), permissions);
                // printing the permissions associated with the file
                System.out.println("Executable: " + file.canExecute());
                System.out.println("Readable: " + file.canRead());
                System.out.println("Writable: "+ file.canWrite());

                file.setExecutable(true);
                file.setReadable(true);
                file.setWritable(true);
            }
            else
            {
                //modify permissions
                
                //get the permission using file attributes
                Set<PosixFilePermission> perms = Files.readAttributes(file.toPath(), PosixFileAttributes.class).permissions();
                perms.remove(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_WRITE);

                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_READ);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OWNER_EXECUTE);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_WRITE);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_READ);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.GROUP_EXECUTE);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_WRITE);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_READ);
                perms.add(PosixFilePermission.OTHERS_EXECUTE);
                Files.setPosixFilePermissions(file.toPath(), perms);

                System.out.println("Executable: " + file.canExecute());
                System.out.println("Readable: " + file.canRead());
                System.out.println("Writable: "+ file.canWrite());

                file.delete();
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        Path path = Paths.get(String.valueOf(file));
        System.out.println(path);
    }
}