What does the "-D" parameter means?

[Sara El-Kady]

Hi all,

This might sound pretty basic but I would like to understand what does the "-D" paramenter mean in the following line?

<jvmarg value="[b]-D[/b]ximei.properties.file=${basedir.nobackslash}/conf/batch/ximei/ximeibatch.properties"/>

is there some sort of documentation that has all the other valid paramenters as well?

Thanks,
Sara

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

-D is Java's way of saying "system property." It is to show the argument goes to the VM rather than the main() method of your program.

[Tim Holloway]

To expand, "D" for "Define", so "-Dname=value" constructs a name/value pair and catalogs the name in the JVM's System Properties collection. This collection is convenient as a quick-and-dirty command-line option facility (since you don't have to parse it yourself), as the place to set environment features of the JVM itself, and as a way to support options to "add-in" systems which the application doesn't need to configure itself. Things like logging options, for example.