Java properties file specs [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Escaping equal sign in properties files

In a .properties file, can I use the character '=' after the first one?

Like this:

url=http://www.example.org/test=

Is it allowed and where can I know that it is allowed if it indeed is?

So far it seems to be working but I simply am not too sure it won't break later on.

Answer 1

You may put backslash escape character (\) before = and :.

Or better use the following code that prints out how your property should be escaped:

                Properties props = new Properties();
                props.setProperty("url", "http://www.example.org/test=");
                props.store(System.out, null);

Output:

#Wed Jan 12 14:30:39 GMT 2011
url=http\://www.example.org/test\=

Also, please check out Java API information

Answer 2

Unless they change the spec of Properties, it will always work. See http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Properties.html#load%28java.io.Reader%29 for the specs.