java command in cmd how to set default directory - java

I am running java program from cmd like this java Main. But before that, I have to get to the route directory using cd ..., because my Main class is reding values from property file, which is in root directory. Is there a way or an option of setting the root directory, so then I will no need to get to this directory with cd commands ?

You could pass path to the directory as a parameter and get in from String[] args in main method. You'll pass absolute path to the file and it wouldn't be relevant from which directory you're starting your java process.
Here is the oracle's tutorial showing how you could do that.

Navigating to the directory through command prompt is very easy using a while loop and some simple String processing:
System.out.println("Please navigate to the desired directory then type 'done'...");
#SuppressWarnings("resource")
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
StringBuilder path = new StringBuilder(); //Storage for dir path
path.append(System.getenv("SystemDrive"));
while(scanner.hasNextLine()) {
String command = scanner.nextLine(); //Get input
if(command.equalsIgnoreCase("done")) {
break;
}else if(command.startsWith("cd")){
String arg = command.replaceFirst("cd ", ""); //Get next dir
if(!arg.startsWith(System.getenv("SystemDrive"))) { //Make sure they are not using a direct path
if(!new File(path.toString() + "/" + arg).exists()) { //Make sure the dir exists
arg = arg.equalsIgnoreCase("cd") ? "" : arg;
System.out.println("Directory '" + arg + "' cannot be found in path " + path.toString());
}else {
if(arg.equals("..."))
path = new StringBuilder(path.substring(0, path.lastIndexOf("/"))); //StringBuilder#substring does not alter the actual builder
else
path.append("/" + arg);
System.out.println("\t" + path.toString()); //Add the dir to the path
}
}else { //If they are using a direct path, delete the currently stored path
path = new StringBuilder();
path.append(arg);
System.out.println("\t" + path.toString());
}
}else if(command.equalsIgnoreCase("dir")) {
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(new File(path.toString() + "/").list()));
//List the dirs in the current path
}else {
System.out.println("\t" + command + " is not recognized as an internal command.");
}
}
//Get your file and do whatever
File theFile = new File(path.toString() + "/myFile.properties");

You could use the -cp (classpath) command-line argument of Java.
Then if your directory structure is
<application folder>
|
|--config.props (properties file)
|
\--bin
|
|--Main.class
|
|... other classes
You could just go to the <application folder> and use java -cp bin Main to start the application. And it could refer to config.props as a file in the current folder (because it is in the current folder).
As this is something what you may not want to type all the time, it could be wrapped in a Windows .bat file or *nix .sh script, residing in , next to config.props.

Related

java.io.FileNotFoundException: data.csv (The system cannot find the file specified) [duplicate]

I want to access my current working directory using Java.
My code:
String currentPath = new java.io.File(".").getCanonicalPath();
System.out.println("Current dir:" + currentPath);
String currentDir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
System.out.println("Current dir using System:" + currentDir);
Output:
Current dir: C:\WINDOWS\system32
Current dir using System: C:\WINDOWS\system32
My output is not correct because the C drive is not my current directory.
How to get the current directory?
Code :
public class JavaApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Working Directory = " + System.getProperty("user.dir"));
}
}
This will print the absolute path of the current directory from where your application was initialized.
Explanation:
From the documentation:
java.io package resolve relative pathnames using current user directory. The current directory is represented as system property, that is, user.dir and is the directory from where the JVM was invoked.
See: Path Operations (The Java™ Tutorials > Essential Classes > Basic I/O).
Using java.nio.file.Path and java.nio.file.Paths, you can do the following to show what Java thinks is your current path. This for 7 and on, and uses NIO.
Path currentRelativePath = Paths.get("");
String s = currentRelativePath.toAbsolutePath().toString();
System.out.println("Current absolute path is: " + s);
This outputs:
Current absolute path is: /Users/george/NetBeansProjects/Tutorials
that in my case is where I ran the class from.
Constructing paths in a relative way, by not using a leading separator to indicate you are constructing an absolute path, will use this relative path as the starting point.
The following works on Java 7 and up (see here for documentation).
import java.nio.file.Paths;
Paths.get(".").toAbsolutePath().normalize().toString();
This will give you the path of your current working directory:
Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath(".");
And this will give you the path to a file called "Foo.txt" in the working directory:
Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("Foo.txt");
Edit :
To obtain an absolute path of current directory:
Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath(".").toAbsolutePath();
* Update *
To get current working directory:
Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("").toAbsolutePath();
Java 11 and newer
This solution is better than others and more portable:
Path cwd = Path.of("").toAbsolutePath();
Or even
String cwd = Path.of("").toAbsolutePath().toString();
This is the solution for me
File currentDir = new File("");
What makes you think that c:\windows\system32 is not your current directory? The user.dir property is explicitly to be "User's current working directory".
To put it another way, unless you start Java from the command line, c:\windows\system32 probably is your CWD. That is, if you are double-clicking to start your program, the CWD is unlikely to be the directory that you are double clicking from.
Edit: It appears that this is only true for old windows and/or Java versions.
Use CodeSource#getLocation().
This works fine in JAR files as well. You can obtain CodeSource by ProtectionDomain#getCodeSource() and the ProtectionDomain in turn can be obtained by Class#getProtectionDomain().
public class Test {
public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
URL location = Test.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation();
System.out.println(location.getFile());
}
}
this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("").getPath()
generally, as a File object:
File getCwd() {
return new File("").getAbsoluteFile();
}
you may want to have full qualified string like "D:/a/b/c" doing:
getCwd().getAbsolutePath()
I'm on Linux and get same result for both of these approaches:
#Test
public void aaa()
{
System.err.println(Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath().toString());
System.err.println(System.getProperty("user.dir"));
}
Paths.get("") docs
System.getProperty("user.dir") docs
I hope you want to access the current directory including the package i.e. If your Java program is in c:\myApp\com\foo\src\service\MyTest.java and you want to print until c:\myApp\com\foo\src\service then you can try the following code:
String myCurrentDir = System.getProperty("user.dir")
+ File.separator
+ System.getProperty("sun.java.command")
.substring(0, System.getProperty("sun.java.command").lastIndexOf("."))
.replace(".", File.separator);
System.out.println(myCurrentDir);
Note: This code is only tested in Windows with Oracle JRE.
On Linux when you run a jar file from terminal, these both will return the same String: "/home/CurrentUser", no matter, where youre jar file is. It depends just on what current directory are you using with your terminal, when you start the jar file.
Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath().toString();
System.getProperty("user.dir");
If your Class with main would be called MainClass, then try:
MainClass.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getFile();
This will return a String with absolute path of the jar file.
Using Windows user.dir returns the directory as expected, but NOT when you start your application with elevated rights (run as admin), in that case you get C:\WINDOWS\system32
Mention that it is checked only in Windows but i think it works perfect on other Operating Systems [Linux,MacOs,Solaris] :).
I had 2 .jar files in the same directory . I wanted from the one .jar file to start the other .jar file which is in the same directory.
The problem is that when you start it from the cmd the current directory is system32.
Warnings!
The below seems to work pretty well in all the test i have done even
with folder name ;][[;'57f2g34g87-8+9-09!2##!$%^^&() or ()%&$%^##
it works well.
I am using the ProcessBuilder with the below as following:
🍂..
//The class from which i called this was the class `Main`
String path = getBasePathForClass(Main.class);
String applicationPath= new File(path + "application.jar").getAbsolutePath();
System.out.println("Directory Path is : "+applicationPath);
//Your know try catch here
//Mention that sometimes it doesn't work for example with folder `;][[;'57f2g34g87-8+9-09!2##!$%^^&()`
ProcessBuilder builder = new ProcessBuilder("java", "-jar", applicationPath);
builder.redirectErrorStream(true);
Process process = builder.start();
//...code
🍂getBasePathForClass(Class<?> classs):
/**
* Returns the absolute path of the current directory in which the given
* class
* file is.
*
* #param classs
* #return The absolute path of the current directory in which the class
* file is.
* #author GOXR3PLUS[StackOverFlow user] + bachden [StackOverFlow user]
*/
public static final String getBasePathForClass(Class<?> classs) {
// Local variables
File file;
String basePath = "";
boolean failed = false;
// Let's give a first try
try {
file = new File(classs.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toURI().getPath());
if (file.isFile() || file.getPath().endsWith(".jar") || file.getPath().endsWith(".zip")) {
basePath = file.getParent();
} else {
basePath = file.getPath();
}
} catch (URISyntaxException ex) {
failed = true;
Logger.getLogger(classs.getName()).log(Level.WARNING,
"Cannot firgue out base path for class with way (1): ", ex);
}
// The above failed?
if (failed) {
try {
file = new File(classs.getClassLoader().getResource("").toURI().getPath());
basePath = file.getAbsolutePath();
// the below is for testing purposes...
// starts with File.separator?
// String l = local.replaceFirst("[" + File.separator +
// "/\\\\]", "")
} catch (URISyntaxException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(classs.getName()).log(Level.WARNING,
"Cannot firgue out base path for class with way (2): ", ex);
}
}
// fix to run inside eclipse
if (basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "lib") || basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "bin")
|| basePath.endsWith("bin" + File.separator) || basePath.endsWith("lib" + File.separator)) {
basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 4);
}
// fix to run inside netbeans
if (basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "build" + File.separator + "classes")) {
basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 14);
}
// end fix
if (!basePath.endsWith(File.separator)) {
basePath = basePath + File.separator;
}
return basePath;
}
assume that you're trying to run your project inside eclipse, or netbean or stand alone from command line. I have write a method to fix it
public static final String getBasePathForClass(Class<?> clazz) {
File file;
try {
String basePath = null;
file = new File(clazz.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toURI().getPath());
if (file.isFile() || file.getPath().endsWith(".jar") || file.getPath().endsWith(".zip")) {
basePath = file.getParent();
} else {
basePath = file.getPath();
}
// fix to run inside eclipse
if (basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "lib") || basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "bin")
|| basePath.endsWith("bin" + File.separator) || basePath.endsWith("lib" + File.separator)) {
basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 4);
}
// fix to run inside netbean
if (basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "build" + File.separator + "classes")) {
basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 14);
}
// end fix
if (!basePath.endsWith(File.separator)) {
basePath = basePath + File.separator;
}
return basePath;
} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("Cannot firgue out base path for class: " + clazz.getName());
}
}
To use, everywhere you want to get base path to read file, you can pass your anchor class to above method, result may be the thing you need :D
Best,
For Java 11 you could also use:
var path = Path.of(".").toRealPath();
This is a very confuse topic, and we need to understand some concepts before providing a real solution.
The File, and NIO File Api approaches with relative paths "" or "." uses internally the system parameter "user.dir" value to determine the return location.
The "user.dir" value is based on the USER working directory, and the behavior of that value depends on the operative system, and the way the jar is executed.
For example, executing a JAR from Linux using a File Explorer (opening it by double click) will set user.dir with the user home directory, regardless of the location of the jar. If the same jar is executed from command line, it will return the jar location, because each cd command to the jar location modified the working directory.
Having said that, the solutions using Java NIO, Files or "user.dir" property will work for all the scenarios in the way the "user.dir" has the correct value.
String userDirectory = System.getProperty("user.dir");
String userDirectory2 = new File("").getAbsolutePath();
String userDirectory3 = Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath().toString();
We could use the following code:
new File(MyApp.class.getProtectionDomain()
.getCodeSource()
.getLocation()
.toURI().getPath())
.getParent();
to get the current location of the executed JAR, and personally I used the following approach to get the expected location and overriding the "user.dir" system property at the very beginning of the application. So, later when the other approaches are used, I will get the expected values always.
More details here -> https://blog.adamgamboa.dev/getting-current-directory-path-in-java/
public class MyApp {
static {
//This static block runs at the very begin of the APP, even before the main method.
try{
File file = new File(MyApp.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource()
.getLocation().toURI().getPath());
String basePath = file.getParent();
//Overrides the existing value of "user.dir"
System.getProperties().put("user.dir", basePath);
}catch(URISyntaxException ex){
//log the error
}
}
public static void main(String args []){
//Your app logic
//All these approaches should return the expected value
//regardless of the way the jar is executed.
String userDirectory = System.getProperty("user.dir");
String userDirectory2 = new File("").getAbsolutePath();
String userDirectory3 = Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath().toString();
}
}
I hope this explanation and details are helpful to others...
Current working directory is defined differently in different Java implementations. For certain version prior to Java 7 there was no consistent way to get the working directory. You could work around this by launching Java file with -D and defining a variable to hold the info
Something like
java -D com.mycompany.workingDir="%0"
That's not quite right, but you get the idea. Then System.getProperty("com.mycompany.workingDir")...
This is my silver bullet when ever the moment of confusion bubbles in.(Call it as first thing in main). Maybe for example JVM is slipped to be different version by IDE. This static function searches current process PID and opens VisualVM on that pid. Confusion stops right there because you want it all and you get it...
public static void callJVisualVM() {
System.out.println("USER:DIR!:" + System.getProperty("user.dir"));
//next search current jdk/jre
String jre_root = null;
String start = "vir";
try {
java.lang.management.RuntimeMXBean runtime =
java.lang.management.ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean();
String jvmName = runtime.getName();
System.out.println("JVM Name = " + jvmName);
long pid = Long.valueOf(jvmName.split("#")[0]);
System.out.println("JVM PID = " + pid);
Runtime thisRun = Runtime.getRuntime();
jre_root = System.getProperty("java.home");
System.out.println("jre_root:" + jre_root);
start = jre_root.concat("\\..\\bin\\jvisualvm.exe " + "--openpid " + pid);
thisRun.exec(start);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.getProperties().list(System.out);
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
This isn't exactly what's asked, but here's an important note: When running Java on a Windows machine, the Oracle installer puts a "java.exe" into C:\Windows\system32, and this is what acts as the launcher for the Java application (UNLESS there's a java.exe earlier in the PATH, and the Java app is run from the command-line). This is why File(".") keeps returning C:\Windows\system32, and why running examples from macOS or *nix implementations keep coming back with different results from Windows.
Unfortunately, there's really no universally correct answer to this one, as far as I have found in twenty years of Java coding unless you want to create your own native launcher executable using JNI Invocation, and get the current working directory from the native launcher code when it's launched. Everything else is going to have at least some nuance that could break under certain situations.
Try something like this I know I am late for the answer but this obvious thing happened in java8 a new version from where this question is asked but..
The code
import java.io.File;
public class Find_this_dir {
public static void main(String[] args) {
//some sort of a bug in java path is correct but file dose not exist
File this_dir = new File("");
//but these both commands work too to get current dir
// File this_dir_2 = new File(this_dir.getAbsolutePath());
File this_dir_2 = new File(new File("").getAbsolutePath());
System.out.println("new File(" + "\"\"" + ")");
System.out.println(this_dir.getAbsolutePath());
System.out.println(this_dir.exists());
System.out.println("");
System.out.println("new File(" + "new File(" + "\"\"" + ").getAbsolutePath()" + ")");
System.out.println(this_dir_2.getAbsolutePath());
System.out.println(this_dir_2.exists());
}
}
This will work and show you the current path but I don't now why java fails to find current dir in new File(""); besides I am using Java8 compiler...
This works just fine I even tested it new File(new File("").getAbsolutePath());
Now you have current directory in a File object so (Example file object is f then),
f.getAbsolutePath() will give you the path in a String varaible type...
Tested in another directory that is not drive C works fine
My favorite method is to get it from the system environment variables attached to the current running process. In this case, your application is being managed by the JVM.
String currentDir = System.getenv("PWD");
/*
/home/$User/Documents/java
*/
To view other environment variables that you might find useful like, home dir, os version ........
//Home directory
String HomeDir = System.getEnv("HOME");
//Outputs for unix
/home/$USER
//Device user
String user = System.getEnv("USERNAME");
//Outputs for unix
$USER
The beautiful thing with this approach is that all paths will be resolved for all types of OS platform
You might use new File("./"). This way isDirectory() returns true (at least on Windows platform). On the other hand new File("") isDirectory() returns false.
None of the answers posted here worked for me. Here is what did work:
java.nio.file.Paths.get(
getClass().getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toURI()
);
Edit: The final version in my code:
URL myURL = getClass().getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation();
java.net.URI myURI = null;
try {
myURI = myURL.toURI();
} catch (URISyntaxException e1)
{}
return java.nio.file.Paths.get(myURI).toFile().toString()
System.getProperty("java.class.path")

How to differentiate between an empty file that has no extension and a directory in java?

Let's suppose I have a zip file containing two elements: elem1 (created by linux command touch elem1) and elem2 (created by linux command mkdir elem2)
Now, in java, I use the following code to extract the content of the zip
// ...
// Suppose we have a valid inputStream on a zip file
// ...
ZipInputStream zipInputStream = new ZipInputStream(inputStream);
ZipEntry entry = zipInputStream.getNextEntry();
while (entry != null) {
int entrySize = (int) entry.getSize();
File file = Paths.get(extractPath).resolve(entry.getName()).toFile();
if (/*Condition to detect a directory*/) {
System.out.println("This is a directory");
FileUtils.forceMkdir(file);
} else if (/*Condition to detect an empty file*/) {
System.out.println("This is an empty file");
} else {
System.out.println("This is something else");
}
entry = zipInputStream.getNextEntry();
}
I would like to specify the right conditions to detect whether entry is a directory, or an empty file without extension. Knowing that these entries are still in memory and do not exist on the filesystem, the command file.isDirectory() always returns false; so I cannot not use it to check for directory.
Any ideas please ?
I created both an empty folder and an empty file without extension and evaluated them with the code below:
public static void main(String[] args) {
String path = System.getProperty("user.home") + File.separator + "Desktop" + File.separator;
File file = new File(path + "EmptyFile");
File folder = new File (path + "EmptyFolder");
System.out.println("Is 'folder' a folder? " + (Files.isDirectory(folder.toPath())? "Yes" : "No" ));
System.out.println("Is 'file' a folder? " + (Files.isDirectory(file.toPath())? "Yes" : "No" ));
}
The (not surprising) result:
Is 'folder' a folder? Yes
Is 'file' a folder? No
The reason why this works is because the function Files.isDirectory(...) looks in the file attributes set by the Operating System to determine whether the item being examined is a "File folder" or simply a "file". My assumption is that Zip programs do not contain such metadata (not even Windows zip). Therefore, "isDirectory" test cannot be performed using the Files.isDirectory(...) function. My quick research discovered that, the way to do this (and I am kind of shocked) is by examining the file name and check to see if the name ends with the file separator. In fact, this is how ZipEntry.isDirectory() works.
Attempting to zip an empty folder is not allowed for Windows zip (maybe allowed with other software?). However, I was able to include empty directories with 7-zip. That wasn't the only difference. The isDirectory() test failed when the zip was created with Windows zip because the file was skipped altogether. So, in order for this to work, create the zip file with zip software other than the one that comes with Windows. Then,
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
String path = System.getProperty("user.home") + File.separator + "Desktop" + File.separator;
FileInputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(path + "Desktop.zip");
ZipInputStream zipInputStream = new ZipInputStream(inputStream);
ZipEntry entry = zipInputStream.getNextEntry();
while (entry != null) {
File file = Paths.get(entry.getName()).toFile();
if (entry.isDirectory()) {
System.out.println(entry.getName() + " is a directory");
} else if (file.getName().endsWith(".lnk")) {
System.out.println(file.getName() + " is a shortcut");
} else {
System.out.println(entry.getName() + " is a file");
}
entry = zipInputStream.getNextEntry();
}
zipInputStream.close();
}
Outputs for me:
EmptyFile is a file
EmptyFolder/ is a directory
How We Test Wireless Routers _ PCMag_files/ is a directory
How We Test Wireless Routers _ PCMag_files/00hSyhn9j5PNrcOot1tMzz9.1578945749.fit_lim.size_100x100.png is a file
...
etc
One last note... obviously, if a ZipEntry is not a directory, it is a file. Therefore, no else if is needed. That is, unless you would like to make a distinction between file types. In the example above, I wanted to check if a particular file was a shortcut. Just keep in mind that this is not necessary. The logic should only test entries for isDirectory and if the test fails, it is simply a file.

Command for WinRAR on specific file

I have a code to archive a ZIP file into another ZIP file, using command like this:
String rootftp = "C:\\ROOT_DIR_PUSHFILE\\";
String tampungString = "AAA\\PFILE\\AAA20140531.zip";
String password = "testing";
String command = "cmd.exe "
+ "/C"
+ " cd C:\\Program Files\\WinRAR \n"
+" && rar a -n "+rootftp.trim()+tampungString+".zip"+" "+ rootftp.trim()+tampungString + " -p"+password.trim();
System.out.println(command);
File file = new File(rootftp.trim()+tampungString);
try {
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
file.delete();
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(e);
e.printStackTrace();
}
But the result is :
When I try to archive a specific file, the results is always archive from root directory, not just the specific file, like AAA20140531.zip file, can you explain, why? And how to fix it?
Use this command to create .rar without parent folder:
rar a -ep1 c:\ROOT_DIR_PUSHFILE\AAA\PFILE\AAA20140531.zip c:\ROOT_DIR_PUSHFILE\AAA\PFILE\ -p123456
-ep1 switch makes the result to exclude the base folder from the paths,

How do I print the working directory on the server? [duplicate]

I want to access my current working directory using Java.
My code:
String currentPath = new java.io.File(".").getCanonicalPath();
System.out.println("Current dir:" + currentPath);
String currentDir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
System.out.println("Current dir using System:" + currentDir);
Output:
Current dir: C:\WINDOWS\system32
Current dir using System: C:\WINDOWS\system32
My output is not correct because the C drive is not my current directory.
How to get the current directory?
Code :
public class JavaApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Working Directory = " + System.getProperty("user.dir"));
}
}
This will print the absolute path of the current directory from where your application was initialized.
Explanation:
From the documentation:
java.io package resolve relative pathnames using current user directory. The current directory is represented as system property, that is, user.dir and is the directory from where the JVM was invoked.
See: Path Operations (The Java™ Tutorials > Essential Classes > Basic I/O).
Using java.nio.file.Path and java.nio.file.Paths, you can do the following to show what Java thinks is your current path. This for 7 and on, and uses NIO.
Path currentRelativePath = Paths.get("");
String s = currentRelativePath.toAbsolutePath().toString();
System.out.println("Current absolute path is: " + s);
This outputs:
Current absolute path is: /Users/george/NetBeansProjects/Tutorials
that in my case is where I ran the class from.
Constructing paths in a relative way, by not using a leading separator to indicate you are constructing an absolute path, will use this relative path as the starting point.
The following works on Java 7 and up (see here for documentation).
import java.nio.file.Paths;
Paths.get(".").toAbsolutePath().normalize().toString();
This will give you the path of your current working directory:
Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath(".");
And this will give you the path to a file called "Foo.txt" in the working directory:
Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("Foo.txt");
Edit :
To obtain an absolute path of current directory:
Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath(".").toAbsolutePath();
* Update *
To get current working directory:
Path path = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("").toAbsolutePath();
Java 11 and newer
This solution is better than others and more portable:
Path cwd = Path.of("").toAbsolutePath();
Or even
String cwd = Path.of("").toAbsolutePath().toString();
This is the solution for me
File currentDir = new File("");
What makes you think that c:\windows\system32 is not your current directory? The user.dir property is explicitly to be "User's current working directory".
To put it another way, unless you start Java from the command line, c:\windows\system32 probably is your CWD. That is, if you are double-clicking to start your program, the CWD is unlikely to be the directory that you are double clicking from.
Edit: It appears that this is only true for old windows and/or Java versions.
Use CodeSource#getLocation().
This works fine in JAR files as well. You can obtain CodeSource by ProtectionDomain#getCodeSource() and the ProtectionDomain in turn can be obtained by Class#getProtectionDomain().
public class Test {
public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
URL location = Test.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation();
System.out.println(location.getFile());
}
}
this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("").getPath()
generally, as a File object:
File getCwd() {
return new File("").getAbsoluteFile();
}
you may want to have full qualified string like "D:/a/b/c" doing:
getCwd().getAbsolutePath()
I'm on Linux and get same result for both of these approaches:
#Test
public void aaa()
{
System.err.println(Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath().toString());
System.err.println(System.getProperty("user.dir"));
}
Paths.get("") docs
System.getProperty("user.dir") docs
I hope you want to access the current directory including the package i.e. If your Java program is in c:\myApp\com\foo\src\service\MyTest.java and you want to print until c:\myApp\com\foo\src\service then you can try the following code:
String myCurrentDir = System.getProperty("user.dir")
+ File.separator
+ System.getProperty("sun.java.command")
.substring(0, System.getProperty("sun.java.command").lastIndexOf("."))
.replace(".", File.separator);
System.out.println(myCurrentDir);
Note: This code is only tested in Windows with Oracle JRE.
On Linux when you run a jar file from terminal, these both will return the same String: "/home/CurrentUser", no matter, where youre jar file is. It depends just on what current directory are you using with your terminal, when you start the jar file.
Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath().toString();
System.getProperty("user.dir");
If your Class with main would be called MainClass, then try:
MainClass.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getFile();
This will return a String with absolute path of the jar file.
Using Windows user.dir returns the directory as expected, but NOT when you start your application with elevated rights (run as admin), in that case you get C:\WINDOWS\system32
Mention that it is checked only in Windows but i think it works perfect on other Operating Systems [Linux,MacOs,Solaris] :).
I had 2 .jar files in the same directory . I wanted from the one .jar file to start the other .jar file which is in the same directory.
The problem is that when you start it from the cmd the current directory is system32.
Warnings!
The below seems to work pretty well in all the test i have done even
with folder name ;][[;'57f2g34g87-8+9-09!2##!$%^^&() or ()%&$%^##
it works well.
I am using the ProcessBuilder with the below as following:
🍂..
//The class from which i called this was the class `Main`
String path = getBasePathForClass(Main.class);
String applicationPath= new File(path + "application.jar").getAbsolutePath();
System.out.println("Directory Path is : "+applicationPath);
//Your know try catch here
//Mention that sometimes it doesn't work for example with folder `;][[;'57f2g34g87-8+9-09!2##!$%^^&()`
ProcessBuilder builder = new ProcessBuilder("java", "-jar", applicationPath);
builder.redirectErrorStream(true);
Process process = builder.start();
//...code
🍂getBasePathForClass(Class<?> classs):
/**
* Returns the absolute path of the current directory in which the given
* class
* file is.
*
* #param classs
* #return The absolute path of the current directory in which the class
* file is.
* #author GOXR3PLUS[StackOverFlow user] + bachden [StackOverFlow user]
*/
public static final String getBasePathForClass(Class<?> classs) {
// Local variables
File file;
String basePath = "";
boolean failed = false;
// Let's give a first try
try {
file = new File(classs.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toURI().getPath());
if (file.isFile() || file.getPath().endsWith(".jar") || file.getPath().endsWith(".zip")) {
basePath = file.getParent();
} else {
basePath = file.getPath();
}
} catch (URISyntaxException ex) {
failed = true;
Logger.getLogger(classs.getName()).log(Level.WARNING,
"Cannot firgue out base path for class with way (1): ", ex);
}
// The above failed?
if (failed) {
try {
file = new File(classs.getClassLoader().getResource("").toURI().getPath());
basePath = file.getAbsolutePath();
// the below is for testing purposes...
// starts with File.separator?
// String l = local.replaceFirst("[" + File.separator +
// "/\\\\]", "")
} catch (URISyntaxException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(classs.getName()).log(Level.WARNING,
"Cannot firgue out base path for class with way (2): ", ex);
}
}
// fix to run inside eclipse
if (basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "lib") || basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "bin")
|| basePath.endsWith("bin" + File.separator) || basePath.endsWith("lib" + File.separator)) {
basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 4);
}
// fix to run inside netbeans
if (basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "build" + File.separator + "classes")) {
basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 14);
}
// end fix
if (!basePath.endsWith(File.separator)) {
basePath = basePath + File.separator;
}
return basePath;
}
assume that you're trying to run your project inside eclipse, or netbean or stand alone from command line. I have write a method to fix it
public static final String getBasePathForClass(Class<?> clazz) {
File file;
try {
String basePath = null;
file = new File(clazz.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toURI().getPath());
if (file.isFile() || file.getPath().endsWith(".jar") || file.getPath().endsWith(".zip")) {
basePath = file.getParent();
} else {
basePath = file.getPath();
}
// fix to run inside eclipse
if (basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "lib") || basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "bin")
|| basePath.endsWith("bin" + File.separator) || basePath.endsWith("lib" + File.separator)) {
basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 4);
}
// fix to run inside netbean
if (basePath.endsWith(File.separator + "build" + File.separator + "classes")) {
basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 14);
}
// end fix
if (!basePath.endsWith(File.separator)) {
basePath = basePath + File.separator;
}
return basePath;
} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("Cannot firgue out base path for class: " + clazz.getName());
}
}
To use, everywhere you want to get base path to read file, you can pass your anchor class to above method, result may be the thing you need :D
Best,
For Java 11 you could also use:
var path = Path.of(".").toRealPath();
This is a very confuse topic, and we need to understand some concepts before providing a real solution.
The File, and NIO File Api approaches with relative paths "" or "." uses internally the system parameter "user.dir" value to determine the return location.
The "user.dir" value is based on the USER working directory, and the behavior of that value depends on the operative system, and the way the jar is executed.
For example, executing a JAR from Linux using a File Explorer (opening it by double click) will set user.dir with the user home directory, regardless of the location of the jar. If the same jar is executed from command line, it will return the jar location, because each cd command to the jar location modified the working directory.
Having said that, the solutions using Java NIO, Files or "user.dir" property will work for all the scenarios in the way the "user.dir" has the correct value.
String userDirectory = System.getProperty("user.dir");
String userDirectory2 = new File("").getAbsolutePath();
String userDirectory3 = Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath().toString();
We could use the following code:
new File(MyApp.class.getProtectionDomain()
.getCodeSource()
.getLocation()
.toURI().getPath())
.getParent();
to get the current location of the executed JAR, and personally I used the following approach to get the expected location and overriding the "user.dir" system property at the very beginning of the application. So, later when the other approaches are used, I will get the expected values always.
More details here -> https://blog.adamgamboa.dev/getting-current-directory-path-in-java/
public class MyApp {
static {
//This static block runs at the very begin of the APP, even before the main method.
try{
File file = new File(MyApp.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource()
.getLocation().toURI().getPath());
String basePath = file.getParent();
//Overrides the existing value of "user.dir"
System.getProperties().put("user.dir", basePath);
}catch(URISyntaxException ex){
//log the error
}
}
public static void main(String args []){
//Your app logic
//All these approaches should return the expected value
//regardless of the way the jar is executed.
String userDirectory = System.getProperty("user.dir");
String userDirectory2 = new File("").getAbsolutePath();
String userDirectory3 = Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath().toString();
}
}
I hope this explanation and details are helpful to others...
Current working directory is defined differently in different Java implementations. For certain version prior to Java 7 there was no consistent way to get the working directory. You could work around this by launching Java file with -D and defining a variable to hold the info
Something like
java -D com.mycompany.workingDir="%0"
That's not quite right, but you get the idea. Then System.getProperty("com.mycompany.workingDir")...
This is my silver bullet when ever the moment of confusion bubbles in.(Call it as first thing in main). Maybe for example JVM is slipped to be different version by IDE. This static function searches current process PID and opens VisualVM on that pid. Confusion stops right there because you want it all and you get it...
public static void callJVisualVM() {
System.out.println("USER:DIR!:" + System.getProperty("user.dir"));
//next search current jdk/jre
String jre_root = null;
String start = "vir";
try {
java.lang.management.RuntimeMXBean runtime =
java.lang.management.ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean();
String jvmName = runtime.getName();
System.out.println("JVM Name = " + jvmName);
long pid = Long.valueOf(jvmName.split("#")[0]);
System.out.println("JVM PID = " + pid);
Runtime thisRun = Runtime.getRuntime();
jre_root = System.getProperty("java.home");
System.out.println("jre_root:" + jre_root);
start = jre_root.concat("\\..\\bin\\jvisualvm.exe " + "--openpid " + pid);
thisRun.exec(start);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.getProperties().list(System.out);
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
This isn't exactly what's asked, but here's an important note: When running Java on a Windows machine, the Oracle installer puts a "java.exe" into C:\Windows\system32, and this is what acts as the launcher for the Java application (UNLESS there's a java.exe earlier in the PATH, and the Java app is run from the command-line). This is why File(".") keeps returning C:\Windows\system32, and why running examples from macOS or *nix implementations keep coming back with different results from Windows.
Unfortunately, there's really no universally correct answer to this one, as far as I have found in twenty years of Java coding unless you want to create your own native launcher executable using JNI Invocation, and get the current working directory from the native launcher code when it's launched. Everything else is going to have at least some nuance that could break under certain situations.
Try something like this I know I am late for the answer but this obvious thing happened in java8 a new version from where this question is asked but..
The code
import java.io.File;
public class Find_this_dir {
public static void main(String[] args) {
//some sort of a bug in java path is correct but file dose not exist
File this_dir = new File("");
//but these both commands work too to get current dir
// File this_dir_2 = new File(this_dir.getAbsolutePath());
File this_dir_2 = new File(new File("").getAbsolutePath());
System.out.println("new File(" + "\"\"" + ")");
System.out.println(this_dir.getAbsolutePath());
System.out.println(this_dir.exists());
System.out.println("");
System.out.println("new File(" + "new File(" + "\"\"" + ").getAbsolutePath()" + ")");
System.out.println(this_dir_2.getAbsolutePath());
System.out.println(this_dir_2.exists());
}
}
This will work and show you the current path but I don't now why java fails to find current dir in new File(""); besides I am using Java8 compiler...
This works just fine I even tested it new File(new File("").getAbsolutePath());
Now you have current directory in a File object so (Example file object is f then),
f.getAbsolutePath() will give you the path in a String varaible type...
Tested in another directory that is not drive C works fine
My favorite method is to get it from the system environment variables attached to the current running process. In this case, your application is being managed by the JVM.
String currentDir = System.getenv("PWD");
/*
/home/$User/Documents/java
*/
To view other environment variables that you might find useful like, home dir, os version ........
//Home directory
String HomeDir = System.getEnv("HOME");
//Outputs for unix
/home/$USER
//Device user
String user = System.getEnv("USERNAME");
//Outputs for unix
$USER
The beautiful thing with this approach is that all paths will be resolved for all types of OS platform
You might use new File("./"). This way isDirectory() returns true (at least on Windows platform). On the other hand new File("") isDirectory() returns false.
None of the answers posted here worked for me. Here is what did work:
java.nio.file.Paths.get(
getClass().getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().toURI()
);
Edit: The final version in my code:
URL myURL = getClass().getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation();
java.net.URI myURI = null;
try {
myURI = myURL.toURI();
} catch (URISyntaxException e1)
{}
return java.nio.file.Paths.get(myURI).toFile().toString()
System.getProperty("java.class.path")

program is unable to find the file

i am trying to run a simple java program that reads from a file:
public static void main(String[] args)
throws FileNotFoundException {
Scanner input = new Scanner(new File("weather.txt"));
double prev = input.nextDouble(); // fencepost
for (int i = 1; i <= 7; i++) {
double next = input.nextDouble();
System.out.println(prev + " to " + next +
", change = " + (next - prev));
prev = next;
}
}
}
but i keep getting the following input:
Exception in thread "main" java.io.FileNotFoundException: weather.txt (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:120)
at java.util.Scanner.<init>(Scanner.java:636)
at Files.test.main(test.java:9)
the file weather.txt is in the same folder as the .java program, and i am using eclipse kepler.
the file weather.txt is in the same folder as the .java program, and i
am using eclipse kepler.
src directory is for .java files. You should place weather.txt on project directory of Eclipse Kepler workspace.
If you put this line
System.out.println("current dir : " + System.getProperty("user.dir"));
just to see where the program is reading files from. You may then need to set the directory you are reading from relative to the class that is being run eg,
URL url = getClass().getResource("weather.txt");
File file = new File(url.toURI());
Eclipse Run Configuration allows you to set the directory where your program is running. Either set the directory accordingly, or use a path relative to the directory where you are running. This is usually the workspace directory.

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