finding the exact path in a file system

[baran tamer]

Hello ,
How can i find the path of a file that is being viewed in a file system ?

thanks

[Bauke Scholtz]

File#getPath()?

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/io/File.html

[baran tamer]

Thanks for the reply,

I have managed to do what i need by

ServletContext.getRealPath();

[Bauke Scholtz]

That is to be used to convert a relative web path to an absolute filesystem path. Your initial question didn't make that clear.

[Tim Holloway]

Look closely at the JavaDocs. getRealPath will return null if the "file" isn't really a file. For example, when it's inside of a WAR file.

It's very bad practice to read or write to files inside the web application deployment. First, because they may not be files, as I just said. Secondly, because they can get accidentally wiped out when the application is updated.

If an app needs to write files, use an external directory (you can use JNDI to configure a path, if you'd rather not hard-code it in the app). If you need to read constant files and it's convenient to keep them as part of the deployed WAR, use the resource utilities to access the data.