How to get the current working directory in Java

Question

I want to access my current working directory using java   My code     String current   new java io File        getCanonicalPath            System out println  Current dir   current    String currentDir   System getProperty  user dir            System out println  Current dir using System    currentDir     Output     Current dir  C  WINDOWS system32 Current dir using System  C  WINDOWS system32   My output is not correct because C drive is not my current directory   How to get the current directory

User · Answer

What makes you think that c  windows system32 is not your current directory  The user dir property is explicitly to be  User s current working directory    To put it another way  unless you start Java from the command line  c  windows system32 probably is your CWD  That is  if you are double-clicking to start your program  the CWD is unlikely to be the directory that you are double clicking from   Edit  It appears that this is only true for old windows and or Java versions

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generally  as a File object   File getCwd       return new File     getAbsoluteFile        you may want to have full qualified string like  D  a b c  doing   getCwd   getAbsolutePath

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This isn t exactly what s asked  but here s an important note  When running Java on a Windows machine  the Oracle installer puts a  quot java exe quot  into C  Windows system32  and this is what acts as the launcher for the Java application  UNLESS there s a java exe earlier in the PATH  and the Java app is run from the command-line   This is why File  quot   quot   keeps returning C  Windows system32  and why running examples from macOS or  nix implementations keep coming back with different results from Windows  Unfortunately  there s really no universally correct answer to this one  as far as I have found in twenty years of Java coding unless you want to create your own native launcher executable using JNI Invocation  and get the current working directory from the native launcher code when it s launched  Everything else is going to have at least some nuance that could break under certain situations

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System getProperty  java class path

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I hope you want to access the current directory including the package i e  If your Java program is in c  myApp com foo src service MyTest java and you want to print until c  myApp com foo src service then you can try the following code   String myCurrentDir   System getProperty  user dir                 File separator               System getProperty  sun java command                        substring 0  System getProperty  sun java command   lastIndexOf                            replace      File separator       System out println myCurrentDir     Note  This code is only tested in Windows with Oracle JRE

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Mention that it is checked only in Windows but i think it works perfect on other Operating Systems  Linux MacOs Solaris         I had 2  jar files in the same directory   I wanted from the one  jar file to start the other  jar file which is in the same directory   The problem is that when you start it from the cmd the current directory is system32        Warnings     The below seems to work pretty well in all the test i have done even with folder name       57f2g34g87-8 9-09 2        amp    or     amp       it works well  I am using the ProcessBuilder with the below as following          The class from which i called this was the class  Main  String path   getBasePathForClass Main class   String applicationPath   new File path    application jar   getAbsolutePath      System out println  Directory Path is     applicationPath      Your know try catch here   Mention that sometimes it doesn t work for example with folder        57f2g34g87-8 9-09 2        amp      ProcessBuilder builder   new ProcessBuilder  java    -jar   applicationPath   builder redirectErrorStream true   Process process   builder start          code     getBasePathForClass Class lt   gt  classs                   Returns the absolute path of the current directory in which the given        class        file is                  param classs         return The absolute path of the current directory in which the class                file is          author GOXR3PLUS StackOverFlow user    bachden  StackOverFlow user              public static final String getBasePathForClass Class lt   gt  classs                Local variables         File file          String basePath               boolean failed   false              Let s give a first try         try               file   new File classs getProtectionDomain   getCodeSource   getLocation   toURI   getPath                  if  file isFile      file getPath   endsWith   jar      file getPath   endsWith   zip                      basePath   file getParent                  else                   basePath   file getPath                            catch  URISyntaxException ex                failed   true              Logger getLogger classs getName    log Level WARNING                       Cannot firgue out base path for class with way  1      ex                         The above failed          if  failed                try                   file   new File classs getClassLoader   getResource     toURI   getPath                     basePath   file getAbsolutePath                        the below is for testing purposes                       starts with File separator                     String l   local replaceFirst       File separator                                                  catch  URISyntaxException ex                    Logger getLogger classs getName    log Level WARNING                           Cannot firgue out base path for class with way  2      ex                                       fix to run inside eclipse         if  basePath endsWith File separator    lib      basePath endsWith File separator    bin                      basePath endsWith  bin    File separator     basePath endsWith  lib    File separator                 basePath   basePath substring 0  basePath length   - 4                        fix to run inside netbeans         if  basePath endsWith File separator    build    File separator    classes                  basePath   basePath substring 0  basePath length   - 14                        end fix         if   basePath endsWith File separator                 basePath   basePath   File separator                    return basePath

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On Linux when you run a jar file from terminal  these both will return the same String    home CurrentUser   no matter  where youre jar file is  It depends just on what current directory are you using with your terminal  when you start the jar file   Paths get     toAbsolutePath   toString     System getProperty  user dir      If your Class with main would be called MainClass  then try   MainClass class getProtectionDomain   getCodeSource   getLocation   getFile      This will return a String with absolute path of the jar file

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This is my silver bullet when ever the moment of confusion bubbles in  Call it as first thing in main   Maybe for example JVM is slipped to be different version by IDE  This static function searches current process PID and opens VisualVM on that pid  Confusion stops right there because you  want it all and you get it       public static void callJVisualVM         System out println  USER DIR      System getProperty  user dir           next search current jdk jre     String jre root   null      String start    vir       try           java lang management RuntimeMXBean runtime                   java lang management ManagementFactory getRuntimeMXBean            String jvmName   runtime getName            System out println  JVM Name       jvmName           long pid   Long valueOf jvmName split      0            System out println  JVM PID        pid           Runtime thisRun   Runtime getRuntime            jre root   System getProperty  java home            System out println  jre root     jre root           start   jre root concat        bin  jvisualvm exe      --openpid     pid           thisRun exec start         catch  Exception e            System getProperties   list System out           e printStackTrace

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this getClass   getClassLoader   getResource     getPath

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The following works on Java 7 and up  see here for documentation    import java nio file Paths   Paths get      toAbsolutePath   normalize   toString

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I m on Linux and get same result for both of these approaches    Test public void aaa         System err println Paths get     toAbsolutePath   toString          System err println System getProperty  user dir         Paths get     docs  System getProperty  user dir   docs

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Using Windows user dir returns the directory as expected  but NOT when you start your application with elevated rights  run as admin   in that case you get C  WINDOWS system32

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This will give you the path of your current working directory   Path path   FileSystems getDefault   getPath         And this will give you the path to a file called  Foo txt  in the working directory   Path path   FileSystems getDefault   getPath  Foo txt      Edit   To obtain an absolute path of current directory   Path path   FileSystems getDefault   getPath      toAbsolutePath        Update   To get current working directory   Path path   FileSystems getDefault   getPath     toAbsolutePath

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This is the solution for me  File currentDir   new File

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this is current directory name      String path   home prasad Desktop folderName   File folder   new File path   String folderName folder getAbsoluteFile   getName      this is current directory path  String path folder getPath

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Java 11 and newer This solution is better than others and more portable  Path cwd   Paths get  quot  quot   toAbsolutePath     Or even String cwd   Paths get  quot  quot   toAbsolutePath   toString

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Try something like this I know I am late for the answer but this obvious thing happened in java8 a new version from where this question is asked but   The code import java io File   public class Find this dir        public static void main String   args       some sort of a bug in java path is correct but file dose not exist         File this dir   new File  quot  quot       but these both commands work too to get current dir                 File this dir 2   new File this dir getAbsolutePath             File this dir 2   new File new File  quot  quot   getAbsolutePath              System out println  quot new File  quot     quot   quot   quot  quot     quot   quot            System out println this dir getAbsolutePath             System out println this dir exists             System out println  quot  quot            System out println  quot new File  quot     quot new File  quot     quot   quot   quot  quot     quot   getAbsolutePath   quot     quot   quot            System out println this dir 2 getAbsolutePath             System out println this dir 2 exists              This will work and show you the current path but I don t now why java fails to find current dir in new File  quot  quot    besides I am using Java8 compiler    This works just fine I even tested it new File new File  quot  quot   getAbsolutePath     Now you have current directory in a File object so  Example file object is f then    f getAbsolutePath   will give you the path in a String varaible type    Tested in another directory that is not drive C works fine

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assume that you re trying to run your project inside eclipse  or netbean or stand alone from command line  I have write a method to fix it  public static final String getBasePathForClass Class lt   gt  clazz        File file      try           String basePath   null          file   new File clazz getProtectionDomain   getCodeSource   getLocation   toURI   getPath             if  file isFile      file getPath   endsWith   jar      file getPath   endsWith   zip                  basePath   file getParent              else               basePath   file getPath                         fix to run inside eclipse         if  basePath endsWith File separator    lib      basePath endsWith File separator    bin                      basePath endsWith  bin    File separator     basePath endsWith  lib    File separator                 basePath   basePath substring 0  basePath length   - 4                        fix to run inside netbean         if  basePath endsWith File separator    build    File separator    classes                  basePath   basePath substring 0  basePath length   - 14                        end fix         if   basePath endsWith File separator                 basePath   basePath   File separator                    return basePath        catch  URISyntaxException e            throw new RuntimeException  Cannot firgue out base path for class      clazz getName               To use  everywhere you want to get base path to read file  you can pass your anchor class to above method  result may be the thing you need  D  Best

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Use CodeSource getLocation      This works fine in JAR files as well  You can obtain CodeSource by ProtectionDomain getCodeSource   and the ProtectionDomain in turn can be obtained by Class getProtectionDomain     public class Test       public static void main String    args  throws Exception           URL location   Test class getProtectionDomain   getCodeSource   getLocation            System out println location getFile

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None of the answers posted here worked for me   Here is what did work   java nio file Paths get    getClass   getProtectionDomain   getCodeSource   getLocation   toURI        Edit   The final version in my code   URL myURL   getClass   getProtectionDomain   getCodeSource   getLocation    java net URI myURI   null  try       myURI   myURL toURI      catch  URISyntaxException e1      return java nio file Paths get myURI  toFile   toString

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Code   public class JavaApplication     public static void main String   args        System out println  quot Working Directory    quot    System getProperty  quot user dir quot            This will print the absolute path of the current directory from where your application was initialized   Explanation  From the documentation  java io package resolve relative pathnames using current user directory  The current directory is represented as system property  that is  user dir and is the directory from where the JVM was invoked

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See  http   docs oracle com javase tutorial essential io pathOps html  Using java nio file Path and java nio file Paths  you can do the following to show what Java thinks is your current path  This for 7 and on  and uses NIO   Path currentRelativePath   Paths get      String s   currentRelativePath toAbsolutePath   toString    System out println  Current relative path is      s     This outputs Current relative path is   Users george NetBeansProjects Tutorials that in my case is where I ran the class from  Constructing paths in a relative way  by not using a leading separator to indicate you are constructing an absolute path  will use this relative path as the starting point

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Current working directory is defined differently in different Java implementations  For certain version prior to Java 7 there was no consistent way to get the working directory  You could work around this by launching Java file with -D and defining a variable to hold the info  Something like  java -D com mycompany workingDir   0    That s not quite right  but you get the idea  Then System getProperty  com mycompany workingDir

[java] How to get the current working directory in Java?

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