Recipe 2.2 System Properties

Problem

You need to get information from the system properties.

Solution

Use System.getProperty( ) or System.getProperties( ).

Discussion

What is a property anyway? A property is just a name and value pair stored in a java.util.Properties object, which we discuss more fully in Recipe 7.7. So if I chose to, I could store the following properties in a Properties object called ian:

name=Ian Darwin favorite_popsicle=cherry favorite_rock group=Fleetwood Mac favorite_programming_language=Java pencil color=green

The Properties class has several forms of its retrieval method. You could, for example, say ian.getProperty("pencil color") and get back the string "green". You can also provide a default: say ian.getProperty("pencil color", "black"), and, if the property has not been set, you get the default value "black".

For now, we're concerned with the System class and its role as keeper of the particular Properties object that controls and describes the Java runtime. The System class has a static Properties member whose content is the merger of operating system specifics (os.name, for example), system and user tailoring (java.class.path), and properties defined on the command line (as we'll see in a moment). Note that the use of periods in these names (like os.arch, os.version, java.class.path, and java.lang.version) makes it look as though there is a hierarchical relationship similar to that for class names. The Properties class, however, imposes no such relationships: each key is just a string, and dots are not special.

To retrieve one system-provided property, use System.getProperty( ). If you want them all, use System.getProperties( ). Accordingly, if I wanted to find out if the System Properties had a property named "pencil color", I could say:

String color = System.getProperty("pencil color");

But what does that return? Surely Java isn't clever enough to know about everybody's favorite pencil color? Right you are! But we can easily tell Java about our pencil color (or anything else we want to tell it) using the -D argument.

The -D option argument is used to predefine a value in the system properties object. It must have a name, an equals sign, and a value, which are parsed the same way as in a properties file (see below). You can have more than one -D definition between the java command and your class name on the command line. At the Unix or Windows command line, type:

java -D"pencil color=Deep Sea Green" SysPropDemo

Using an IDE, put the variable's name and value in the appropriate dialog box when running the program. The SysPropDemo program is short; its essence is this one line:

System.getProperties( ).list(System.out);

When run this way, the program prints about 50 lines, looking something like:

java.library.path=/usr/local/linux-jdk1.2/jre/lib/i386/... java.vm.specification.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc. sun.io.unicode.encoding=UnicodeLittle pencil color=Deep Sea Green file.encoding=ANSI_X3.4-1968 java.specification.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc. user.language=en

The program also has code to extract just one or a few properties, so you can say:

$ java SysPropDemo os.arch os.arch = x86

Which reminds me this is a good time to mention system-dependent code. Recipe 2.3 talks about release-dependent code, and Recipe 2.4 talks about OS-dependent code.

Problem

Solution

Discussion

See Also