Wrong File Encoding in JVM after Linux Update

Question

After updating linux and java (1.6.0.13->1.6.0.45), Java processes use different file encoding (System Property file.encoding)

New OS Version. Unfortunately I don't know the previous version anymore. But I can tell, that the update got wrong. My Collegue first updated using the x32 OS Version and then we reinstalled x64 Version.

>uname -a
Linux <hostname> 2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2009-10-26 15:49:03 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Locale Settings

>locale
LANG=en_US.ISO8859-1
LC_CTYPE=en_US.ISO8859-1
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_TIME="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_PAPER="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_NAME="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.ISO8859-1"
LC_ALL=

test program

public class Test
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    System.out.println(System.getProperty("file.encoding"));
  }
}

If I start this test program it returns ANSI_X3.4-1968. On other machines with same locale settings it returns ISO8859-1. Even if i start with explicit environment variable it remains unchanged. The only working solution is to use the -Dfile.encoding option. But I don't want to adjust all scripts that use java (tomcat, maven, ant, hudson....). I want to restore the old behaviour, that the file encoding in Java programms, was retrieved from the system locale definition.

>java Test
ANSI_X3.4-1968

>LANG=de_DE.ISO8859-1 java Test
ANSI_X3.4-1968

>java -Dfile.encoding=ISO8859-1 Test
ISO8859-1

At least c programs get the correct encoding and do not use ANSI_X3.4-1968

>idn --debug  --quiet "a.de"
Charset `ISO-8859-1'.
....

Does anybody know, if there is any jvm specific setting, that might got lost during OS or java update.

Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

thanks to icza. I googled a little for JAVA_OPTS, and found, that i should use JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS instead. see How do I use the JAVA_OPTS environment variable?

or _JAVA_OPTIONS: Running java with JAVA_OPTS env variable

both are working just fine, for runtime and compiler

>export JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=-Dfile.encoding=ISO8859-1
>java Test
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Dfile.encoding=ISO8859-1
ISO8859-1

>javac Test.java
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Dfile.encoding=ISO8859-1

>export _JAVA_OPTIONS=-Dfile.encoding=ISO8859-1
>java Test
Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Dfile.encoding=ISO8859-1
ISO8859-1

>javac Test.java
Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Dfile.encoding=ISO8859-1