FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.7.0_40"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_40-b43)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.0-b56, mixed mode)

ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
FileChannel.tryLock() in some cases throws an IOException wrapped in an Error instead of just an IOException.

In the example, this happens because the channel is acquired on a closed stream. This can also happen for other reasons, as we have received stack dumps from our users where there is no possibility that the channel was acquired from a (programmatically) closed stream. Those also had the message "the handle is invalid". So this is not just due to a coding error: apparently the handle can be invalid due to some sort of file system problem.

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
Compile and run example code.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
Expect an IOException to be thrown and caught.
ACTUAL -
An IOException wrapped in an Error is thrown.

ERROR MESSAGES/STACK TRACES THAT OCCUR :
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.Error: java.io.IOException: The handle is invalid
at sun.nio.ch.FileKey.create(FileKey.java:47)
at sun.nio.ch.SharedFileLockTable.<init>(FileLockTable.java:120)
at sun.nio.ch.FileLockTable.newSharedFileLockTable(FileLockTable.java:47)
at sun.nio.ch.FileChannelImpl.fileLockTable(FileChannelImpl.java:988)
at sun.nio.ch.FileChannelImpl.tryLock(FileChannelImpl.java:1055)
at FileChannelBug.main(FileChannelBug.java:14)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: The handle is invalid
at sun.nio.ch.FileKey.init(Native Method)
at sun.nio.ch.FileKey.create(FileKey.java:45)
... 5 more


REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
import java.io.*;
import java.nio.channels.FileChannel;
 
public class FileChannelBug {
 
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      try {
         File f = File.createTempFile("fcbug", ".tmp");
         f.deleteOnExit();
         FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(f);
         fis.close();
         FileChannel fc = fis.getChannel();
      
         fc.tryLock(0, Long.MAX_VALUE, true);
      }
      catch (IOException e) {
      }
   }
}

---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
Catch the Error and if the cause is an IOException, throw the cause, otherwise rethrow the Error.