What's the difference between url.getFile() and getpath()?

The URL.getFile() javadocs say this:

Gets the file name of this URL. The returned file portion will be the same as getPath(), plus the concatenation of the value of getQuery(), if any. If there is no query portion, this method and getPath() will return identical results.

They will be the same unless there is a query string, e.g. a ?somename=value&somethingelse=value2 in the URL.