Typically, what does it mean when java returns a "The parameter is incorrect"

Question

I am creating a file like so

try {
    File file = new File(workingDir, obj.getName() + ".xls");
    outputStream = new FileOutputStream(file);
} catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
}

And I am getting

java.io.FileNotFoundException: ..\a\relative\path\obj_name.xls (The parameter is incorrect)
    at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Native Method)
    at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)

What does "the parameter is incorrect" mean? The pathname I validated exists; shouldn't it just create the file name? This is on a windows machine. The code works without this error on unix based systems.

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Update

Verified that the file exists that the output stream is attempting to write to. Also verified that the file is writable. After much fussing, I removed the actual path and just passed in the file name (not desired) and that works. So the issue has something to do with the path. Do I need to escape the characters in the path?

Answer 1

This looks like a reported bug on Windows machines.

Under normal situations, something like a path that has a colon (:) in it which does not refer to a drive letter would cause this message.