file - Using relative directory path in Java

Question

I am trying to use a relative path to locate an executable file within a Java class instead of hard-coded lines which worked, but using something like:

final static String directory = "../../../ggla/samples/obj/linux_x86"

fails... what is the proper way of using a relative path in Java?

Answer 1

The most likely explanation is that your current directory is not where you think that it is. You can inspect the system property of user.dir to see what the base path of the application is, or you can do something like this:

 System.out.println(new File(".").getCanonicalPath());

right before you use that relative path to debug where your relative reference starts.