Java: System.getProperty("user.home") returns "?"

Question

I'm completely lost on this one: System.getProperty("user.home") and System.getProperty("user.name") returns a questionmark "?".

System-Specs: Kubuntu 9.04 Gnome 2.2.61 Java 1.5.0_16 

My testcase looks like that:

$ more Test.java class Test { public static void main( String[] args ) { System.out.println( System.getProperties() ); } } 

The result is (added line-breaks for better readability, replaced company name and own name):

$ javac Test.java $ java Test { java.runtime.name=Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition, sun.boot.library.path=/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/i386, java.vm.version=1.5.0_16-b02, java.vm.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc., java.vendor.url=http://java.sun.com/, path.separator=:, java.vm.name=Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM, file.encoding.pkg=sun.io, sun.java.launcher=SUN_STANDARD, user.country=US, sun.os.patch.level=unknown, java.vm.specification.name=Java Virtual Machine Specification, user.dir=/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/temp, java.runtime.version=1.5.0_16-b02, java.awt.graphicsenv=sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment, java.endorsed.dirs=/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/endorsed, os.arch=i386, java.io.tmpdir=/tmp, line.separator= , java.vm.specification.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc., os.name=Linux, sun.jnu.encoding=UTF-8, java.library.path=/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/i386/server:/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/i386:/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/../lib/i386, java.specification.name=Java Platform API Specification, java.class.version=49.0, sun.management.compiler=HotSpot Server Compiler, os.version=2.6.28-15-generic, user.home=?, user.timezone=, java.awt.printerjob=sun.print.PSPrinterJob, file.encoding=UTF-8, java.specification.version=1.5, java.class.path=., user.name=?, java.vm.specification.version=1.0, java.home=/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre, sun.arch.data.model=32, user.language=en, java.specification.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc., java.vm.info=mixed mode, java.version=1.5.0_16, java.ext.dirs=/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/ext, sun.boot.class.path=/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/rt.jar:/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/i18n.jar:/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/sunrsasign.jar:/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/jsse.jar:/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/jce.jar:/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/lib/charsets.jar:/home/MYCOMPANY/myname/apps/jdk1.5.0_16/jre/classes, java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc., file.separator=/, java.vendor.url.bug=http://java.sun.com/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi, sun.io.unicode.encoding=UnicodeLittle, sun.cpu.endian=little, sun.desktop=gnome, sun.cpu.isalist= } 

Did someone ever experience that? Where is Java looking to find the user and home directory? I already checked the HOME environment variable which is set correctly.

Answer 1

It's a bit embarrassing but the solution was simply to use a 64-bit JDK on a 64-bit system. I copied everything from my old machine, which meant also a 32-bit JDK, and this was the problem. It worked as expected with a 64-bit runtime.

Sorry for bothering.

Answer 2

A workaround, not a solution. You should be able to set it with by adding -Duser.home=$HOME as an argument.

java -Duser.home=$HOME Test