Question

I know that the system property “user.dir” returns the current working directory; the directory containing that file that is currently running.

I am wondering, how would I be able to go one step farther? I need to find the current working file. I am writing a little app that is kind of like an auto-updater, and I need to know the file that needs to be updated. For example, if I run a file from C:/test.jar I want to actually know, in code, that the current location of the file that is running is C:/test.jar so that I can write (new) data to it.

I’ve tried an approach like this:

    ClassLoader loader = Test.class.getClassLoader();
    System.out.println(loader.getResource("Test.class"));

However, it prints out:

3/5/12 7:50:16.914 PM [0x0-0x31031].com.apple.JarLauncher: rsrc:Test.class

(I am running this on a Mac – I got that line from the Console).
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

With credits to Fab in the following post:
Jar path+name from currently running jar

String path = Test.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getPath();
String decodedPath = URLDecoder.decode(path, "UTF-8");