Question

Is it possible to initialize Java system properties using some sort of configuration file?

(ie: can you set java.library.path using a file inside your jar)

EDIT: Clarification: I am asking specifically about initializing the system properties to a value in a file, not setting them later from inside the virtual machine. Yes, you can change system properties to whatever you want very easily after the machine starts up, but the Java system classes will not use the new values.

Practically speaking, this means System.setProperty and System.setProperties are useless for loading native libraries, as JNI will always use the original value of java.library.path to load libraries with. I’m trying to figure out if there’s a cleaner alternative to just putting -Djava.library.path=whatever in start up scripts everywhere.

Answer 1

There is a way to set java.library.path programatically, see this.

The code is a hack to set the sys_path field on the ClassLoader,

System.setProperty( "java.library.path", "/path/to/libs" );

Field fieldSysPath = ClassLoader.class.getDeclaredField( "sys_paths" );
fieldSysPath.setAccessible( true );
fieldSysPath.set( null, null );