Accessing "~" (user home) from Java in Linux

Question

I need to create a configuration file in ~/.config/myapp.cfg So I am doing this with File:

File f; f = new File("~/.config/gfgd.gfgdf"); if(!f.exists()){     f.createNewFile(); } 

The problem is, that it tell me, that directory doesn't exist and something like this.

java.io.IOException: Not such file or directory     at java.io.UnixFileSystem.createFileExclusively(Native Method) 

I tried changing path to something like /home/user and it worked. So i managed to make a conclusion, that java doesn't know what ~/ means and what a punct(.) before foldername means too, because /home/user/.config doesn not work aswell.

What should I do?

Answer 1

The ~ notation is a shell thing. Read up on shell expansion.

Java doesn't understand this notation. To get hold of the home directory, get the system property with key user.home:

String home = System.getProperty("user.home"); File f = new File(home + "/.config/gfgd.gfgdf"); 

(As a bonus, it will work on windows machines too ;-)