Spring Boot Is it possible to use external application properties files in arbitrary directories with a fat jar

Question

Is it possible to have multiple application properties file   EDIT  note that this question evolved to the one on the title    I tried to have 2 files    The first one is on the root folder in the application Jar  The second one is on the directory which is specified in classpath    2 files are both named  application properties    Is it possible to  merge  the contents of both files   and the second one s property values override the first one s  Or  if I have one file then the other file is ignored   UPDATE 1  it is possible to  merge  the contents  Yesterday it seemed that the first one was ignored  but it seems that it s because that something was broken then  Now it works well   UPDATE 2  It s back again  Again only one of two files is being applied  It s strange    It started after I built the app jar file using Spring Tool Suite  And it seems that the Jar version always ignores the second one  in classpath   while the behavior of the expanded version which runs on STS varies  From where can I start to investigate   UPDATE 3   The behavior of the Jar version was in fact correct  It s the specification of java exe  When -jar option is specified  java exe ignores both -classpath option and CLASSPATH environment variable  and the classpath will contain only the jar file  So  the second application properties file on the classpath is ignored   Now  how can I let the second application properties on the classpath be loaded   UPDATE 4   I managed to load an application properties file in external path while using -jar option   The key was PropertiesLauncher   To use PropertiesLauncher  pom xml file must be changed like this    lt build gt       lt plugins gt           lt plugin gt               lt groupId gt org springframework boot lt  groupId gt               lt artifactId gt spring-boot-maven-plugin lt  artifactId gt               lt configuration gt    lt  -- added -- gt                   lt layout gt ZIP lt  layout gt   lt  -- to use PropertiesLaunchar -- gt               lt  configuration gt           lt  plugin gt       lt  plugins gt   lt  build gt    For this  I referenced the following StackOverflow question  spring boot properties launcher unable to use   BTW  In Spring Boot Maven Plugin document http   docs spring io spring-boot docs 1 1 7 RELEASE maven-plugin repackage-mojo html   there is no mention that specifying ZIP triggers that PropertiesLauncher is used   Perhaps in another document    After the jar file had been built  I could see that the PropertiesLauncher is used by inspecting Main-Class property in META-INF MENIFEST MF in the jar   Now  I can run the jar as follows in Windows    java -Dloader path file    C  My External Dir MyApp-0 0 1-SNAPSHOT jar -jar MyApp-0 0 1-SNAPSHOT jar   Note that the application jar file is included in loader path   Now an application properties file in C  My External Dir config is loaded   As a bonus  any file  for example  static html file  in that directory can also be accessed by the jar since it s in the loader path   As for the non-jar  expanded  version mentioned in UPDATE 2  maybe there was a classpath order problem    BTW  I changed the question s title to be more specific to this issue

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Solution for yml file   1 Copy yml to in same directory that jar application  2 Run command  example for xxx yml   java -jar app jar --spring config location xxx yml   It s works fine  but in startup logger is INFO   No active profile set

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If you have not changed the defaults of Spring Boot  meaning you are using  EnableAutoConfiguration or  SpringBootApplication and have not changed any Property Source handling   then it will look for properties with the following order  highest overrides lowest     A  config subdir of the current directory The current directory A classpath  config package  The classpath root    The list above is mentioned in this part of the documentation  What that means is that if a property is found for example application properties under src resources is will be overridden by a property with the same name found in application properties in the  config directory that is  next  to the packaged jar   This default order used by Spring Boot allows for very easy configuration externalization which in turn makes applications easy to configure in multiple environments  dev  staging  production  cloud etc   To see the whole set of features provided by Spring Boot for property reading  hint  there is a lot more available than reading from application properties  check out this part of the documentation   As one can see from my short description above or from the full documentation  Spring Boot apps are very DevOps friendly

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I know it is a pointed question  and the op wanted to load different properties file   My answer is  doing custom hacks like this is a terrible idea   If you are using spring-boot with a cloud provider such as cloud foundry  please do yourself a favor and use cloud config services  https   spring io projects spring-cloud-config  It loads and merges default dev project-default project-dev specific properties like magic  Again  Spring boot already gives you enough ways to do this right https   docs spring io spring-boot docs current reference html boot-features-external-config html  Please do not re-invent the wheel

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This may be coming in Late but I think I figured out a better way to load external configurations especially when you run your spring-boot app using java jar myapp war instead of  PropertySource  classpath some properties    The configuration would be loaded form the root of the project or from the location the war jar file is being run from  public class Application implements EnvironmentAware        public static void main String   args  throws Exception           SpringApplication run Application class  args               Override     public void setEnvironment Environment environment              Set up Relative path of Configuration directory folder  should be at the root of the project or the same folder where the jar war is placed or being run from         String configFolder    config             All static property file names here         List lt String gt  propertyFiles   Arrays asList  application properties   server properties              This is also useful for appending the profile names         Arrays asList environment getActiveProfiles    stream   forEach environmentName - gt  propertyFiles add String format  application- s properties   environmentName              for  String configFileName   propertyFiles                File configFile   new File configFolder  configFileName               LOGGER info   n n n n                LOGGER info String format  looking for configuration  s from  s   configFileName  configFolder                FileSystemResource springResource   new FileSystemResource configFile               LOGGER log Level INFO   Config file    0     configFile exists      FOund     Not Found                 if  configFile exists                      try                       LOGGER info String format  Loading configuration file  s   configFileName                        PropertiesFactoryBean pfb   new PropertiesFactoryBean                        pfb setFileEncoding  UTF-8                        pfb setLocation springResource                       pfb afterPropertiesSet                        Properties properties   pfb getObject                        PropertiesPropertySource externalConfig   new PropertiesPropertySource  externalConfig   properties                         ConfigurableEnvironment  environment  getPropertySources   addFirst externalConfig                     catch  IOException ex                        LOGGER log Level SEVERE  null  ex                                   else                   LOGGER info String format  Cannot find Configuration file  s     n n n n   configFileName                                         Hope it helps

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You would be able to launch your spring boot appication with the external properties file path as follows   java -jar  jar-file-name  jar  --spring config location file    C   file-path   file-name  properties

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lt build gt       lt plugins gt           lt plugin gt               lt groupId gt org springframework boot lt  groupId gt               lt artifactId gt spring-boot-maven-plugin lt  artifactId gt               lt configuration gt                   lt layout gt ZIP lt  layout gt                lt  configuration gt           lt  plugin gt       lt  plugins gt   lt  build gt   java -Dloader path file    absolute path external jar -jar example jar

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java -jar server-0 0 1-SNAPSHOT jar --spring config location application-prod properties

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Another flexible way using classpath containing fat jar  -cp fat jar  or all jars  -cp   JARS DIR     and another custom config classpath or folder containing configuration files usually elsewhere and outside jar  So instead of the limited java -jar  use the more flexible classpath way as follows   java      -cp fat app jar       -Dloader path  lt path to your additional jars or config folder gt       org springframework boot loader PropertiesLauncher   See Spring-boot executable jar doc and this link  If you do have multiple MainApps which is common  you can use How do I tell Spring Boot which main class to use for the executable jar   You can add additional locations by setting an environment variable LOADER PATH or loader path in loader properties  comma-separated list of directories  archives  or directories within archives   Basically loader path works for both java -jar or java -cp way   And as always you can override and exactly specify the application yml it should pickup for debugging purpose   --spring config location  some-location application yml --debug

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I managed to load an application properties file in external path while using -jar option   The key was PropertiesLauncher   To use PropertiesLauncher  pom xml file must be changed like this    lt build gt       lt plugins gt           lt plugin gt               lt groupId gt org springframework boot lt  groupId gt               lt artifactId gt spring-boot-maven-plugin lt  artifactId gt               lt configuration gt    lt  -- added -- gt                   lt layout gt ZIP lt  layout gt   lt  -- to use PropertiesLaunchar -- gt               lt  configuration gt           lt  plugin gt       lt  plugins gt   lt  build gt    For this  I referenced the following StackOverflow question  spring boot properties launcher unable to use   BTW  In Spring Boot Maven Plugin document http   docs spring io spring-boot docs 1 1 7 RELEASE maven-plugin repackage-mojo html   there is no mention that specifying ZIP triggers that PropertiesLauncher is used   Perhaps in another document    After the jar file had been built  I could see that the PropertiesLauncher is used by inspecting Main-Class property in META-INF MENIFEST MF in the jar   Now  I can run the jar as follows in Windows    java -Dloader path file    C  My External Dir MyApp-0 0 1-SNAPSHOT jar -jar MyApp-0 0 1-SNAPSHOT jar   Note that the application jar file is included in loader path   Now an application properties file in C  My External Dir config is loaded   As a bonus  any file  for example  static html file  in that directory can also be accessed by the jar since it s in the loader path   As for the non-jar  expanded  version mentioned in UPDATE 2  maybe there was a classpath order problem

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When you are creating spring boot jar using maven install and you want all the resources like properties file and lib folder to be created outside of jar    then add the following code inside pom xml where i am defining the output folder where i want to extract and store the desired resources of jar    lt build gt   lt finalName gt project name Build project name lt  finalName gt      lt plugins gt           lt plugin gt               lt groupId gt org springframework boot lt  groupId gt               lt artifactId gt spring-boot-maven-plugin lt  artifactId gt           lt  plugin gt            lt plugin gt               lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt               lt artifactId gt maven-dependency-plugin lt  artifactId gt               lt executions gt                   lt execution gt                       lt id gt copy-dependencies lt  id gt                       lt phase gt prepare-package lt  phase gt                       lt goals gt                           lt goal gt copy-dependencies lt  goal gt                       lt  goals gt                       lt configuration gt                           lt outputDirectory gt   project build directory  project name Build lib lt  outputDirectory gt                           lt overWriteReleases gt false lt  overWriteReleases gt                           lt overWriteSnapshots gt false lt  overWriteSnapshots gt                           lt overWriteIfNewer gt true lt  overWriteIfNewer gt                       lt  configuration gt                   lt  execution gt               lt  executions gt           lt  plugin gt            lt plugin gt               lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt               lt artifactId gt maven-jar-plugin lt  artifactId gt               lt configuration gt                   lt archive gt                       lt manifest gt                           lt addClasspath gt true lt  addClasspath gt                           lt classpathPrefix gt lib  lt  classpathPrefix gt                           lt mainClass gt write here the qualified or complete path of main class of application lt  mainClass gt                       lt  manifest gt                       lt manifestEntries gt                           lt Class-Path gt   resources  lt  Class-Path gt                       lt  manifestEntries gt                   lt  archive gt                   lt descriptorRefs gt                       lt descriptorRef gt jar-with-dependencies lt  descriptorRef gt                   lt  descriptorRefs gt               lt  configuration gt           lt  plugin gt       lt  plugins gt        lt resources gt           lt resource gt               lt directory gt src main resources lt  directory gt               lt includes gt                   lt include gt application properties lt  include gt                   lt include gt log4j properties lt  include gt               lt  includes gt               lt targetPath gt   project build directory  ConsentGatewayOfflineBuild resources lt  targetPath gt           lt  resource gt            lt resource gt               lt directory gt src main resources lt  directory gt               lt includes gt                   lt include gt application properties lt  include gt                   lt include gt log4j properties lt  include gt               lt  includes gt           lt  resource gt        lt  resources gt        lt pluginManagement gt           lt plugins gt               lt  -- Ignore Execute plugin execution -- gt               lt plugin gt                   lt groupId gt org eclipse m2e lt  groupId gt                   lt artifactId gt lifecycle-mapping lt  artifactId gt                   lt version gt 1 0 0 lt  version gt                   lt configuration gt                       lt lifecycleMappingMetadata gt                           lt pluginExecutions gt                               lt  -- copy-dependency plugin -- gt                               lt pluginExecution gt                                   lt pluginExecutionFilter gt                                       lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt                                       lt artifactId gt maven-dependency-plugin lt  artifactId gt                                       lt versionRange gt  1 0 0   lt  versionRange gt                                       lt goals gt                                           lt goal gt copy-dependencies lt  goal gt                                       lt  goals gt                                   lt  pluginExecutionFilter gt                                   lt action gt                                       lt ignore   gt                                   lt  action gt                               lt  pluginExecution gt                           lt  pluginExecutions gt                       lt  lifecycleMappingMetadata gt                   lt  configuration gt               lt  plugin gt           lt  plugins gt       lt  pluginManagement gt   lt  build gt

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It s all explained here in the docs   http   docs spring io spring-boot docs current reference html boot-features-external-config html  Which explains that this is the order of precedence    A  config subdir of the current directory  The current directory A classpath  config package The classpath root   It also points out that you can define additional properties files for overrides like so   java -jar myproject jar      --spring config location classpath  overrides properties   If you use spring config location  then all the default locations for application properties are also included  This means that you can set up default values in application properties and override as required for a particular environment

[spring] Spring Boot: Is it possible to use external application.properties files in arbitrary directories with a fat jar?

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