Using Windows device name such as Con as Java class name

Question

I am referring to my previous question but this time I used the java compiler and the compiler compiles the output- it gives a weird output. And this time I used this instead of super.

This is the code of the program.

class Con {
    int x = 10;
    Con() {
        this(2);
        System.out.println("x :" + x);
    }
    Con(int i) {
        x = i;
        System.out.println("x :" + x);
    }   
}

class DemoCon {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        Con c1 = new Con();
    }
}

What do you think is the problem here? Is this a bug in Java?

Java version - 1.6.0 JDK

I used Eclipse to run the program and there is a Class not found exception. A.java is the file name... We did a minor edit and made a public class called A.java too but the results are same. We further found out that the problem lies in the compiler.

Answer 1

On Windows it seems CON is reserved name and cannot be used for folders/directories or filenames.

The following

print "test" > Con.java

is not working.

Therefor the compiler is unable to create your Con.class and crashes.

From MSDN:

Do not use the following reserved device names for the name of a file:

CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9. Also avoid these names followed immediately by an extension; for example, NUL.txt is not recommended

Answer 2

perhaps the problem exists because CON is a reserved file name (it was on MS-DOS -- see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/31157 http://www.computerhope.com/copyhlp.htm)