Loading a file relative to the executing jar file

Question

The question says it all.

The specialty in my case is that the current working directory is not the location of the jar file but c:\\Windows\\system32 (

Answer 1

To get Launcher.class.getResourceAsStream("/../config.xml") to work, you need to add its path to the Class-Path entry of the JAR's MANIFEST.MF file. This is the normal practice.

Answer 2

Here is one possible solution using Class.getProtectionDomain():

final Class<?> referenceClass = YourMainClass.class;
final URL url =
    referenceClass.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation();

try{
    final File jarPath = new File(url.toURI()).getParentFile();
    System.out.println(jarPath); // this is the path you want 
} catch(final URISyntaxException e){
    // etc.
}

YourMainClass can be replaced by any class in your jar.

---

From the Class.getProtectionDomain() docs:

Returns the ProtectionDomain of this class.
If there is a security manager installed, this method first calls
the security manager's checkPermission method with a
RuntimePermission("getProtectionDomain") permission to ensure it's
ok to get the ProtectionDomain.

Returns:
  the ProtectionDomain of this class
Throws:
  SecurityException - if a security manager exists and its
  checkPermission method doesn't allow getting the ProtectionDomain.