setting user.dir system property in JBoss 5.1

[Guy Roth]

In JBoss 4.2.3 the System property 'user.dir' is defined to be

<JBoss-root>/bin

When I ran the same application on JBoss 5.1 I noticed that it cannot find the System property user.dir

why there is no default definition for version 5.1?
and how can I define it manually?
I followed this suggestion and added my property into properties-service.xml but it had no affect and still JBoss couldn't find the system:user.dir value.

[Jaikiran Pai]

That property will by default be set by the JVM when you launch Java. It points to the user's current working directory.

When I ran the same application on JBoss 5.1 I noticed that it cannot find the System property user.dir

How, when and where are you accessing that property?

[Guy Roth]

I am trying to call the System property from my web application that is deploayed as a .war in <JBoss root>/server/default/deploy

by calling:

System.getProperty("user.dir");

[Peter Johnson]

You can view all of the system properties in the jmx console (http://localhost:8080/jmx-console). Pick the jboss:type=Service,name=SystemProperties mbean, and the showAll operation.

[Guy Roth]

1. I opened the Mbean SystemProperties and couldn't find an operation to show all the properties such as suggested 'showAll'
I found only: addChild, getEventType, mejbStartRecursive, mejbStart, mejbStop, removeChild

2. even if I could view the list of existing properties my question is in addition how can I modify and add my own system parameters to JBoss (apart from adding them to the java execution command with -D)

[Guy Roth]

Actually you are correct I did manage to perform System.getProperty("user.dir") and get the correct folder (bin)

however when I put in my web.xml the param:

<context-param>
		<param-name>myLocation</param-name>
		<param-value>${system:user.dir}/momo.ini</param-value>
</context-param>

and perform:

context.getInitParameter("myLocation")

the returned value was user.dir/momo.ini
instead of bin/momo.ini

Why is that?

[Jaikiran Pai]

<param-value>${system:user.dir}/momo.ini</param-value> 

That's not how you are supposed to use it. The syntax is:

${system-property-name:default-value}

So when the xml is being parsed, JBoss will first look for a system property named "system-property-name" and if it's set then it will use that value. If it's not set then it will use the "default-value".

So you would want to change it to:

<param-value>${user.dir}/momo.ini</param-value> 

[Guy Roth]

I works! Many thanks to you.


BTW, as far as I know the convention to use system param in web.xml using ${system:<param-name>} worked in JBoss 4.2.3.GA and stopped working only in JBoss 5.1, right?