How to reference a resource file correctly for JAR and Debugging?

Question

I have a nasty problem referencing resources when using a Maven project and Jar files...

I have all my resources in a dedicated folder /src/main/resources which is p

Answer 1

The contents of Maven resource folders are copied to target/classes and from there to the root of the resulting Jar file. That is the expected behaviour.

What I don't understand is what the problem is in your scenario. Referencing a Resource through getClass().getResource("/filename.txt") starts at the root of the classpath, whether that (or an element of it) is target/classes or the JAR's root. The only possible error I see is that you are using the wrong ClassLoader.

Make sure that the class that uses the resource is in the same artifact (JAR) as the resource and do ThatClass.class.getResource("/path/with/slash") or ThatClass.class.getClassLoader().getResource("path/without/slash").

But apart from that: if it isn't working, you are probably doing something wrong somewhere in the build process. Can you verify that the resource is in the JAR?