Cannot determine current directory

Question

I am trying to run a .jar file that was created successfully in Netbeans and I am receiving the following error:

Error occurred during initialization of VM java.lang.Error: Properties init: Could not determine current working directory. at java.lang.System.initProperties(Native Method) at java.lang.System.initializeSystemClass(System.java:1070)

The command that I type to run the .jar is

java -jar "/path to the dist forlder/EOPPrototype.jar"

My classpath is as follows:

CLASSPATH=/opt/netbeans-7.1.2/ide/modules/ext/mysql-connector-java-5.1.13- bin.jar:/h/USERS/local/pagola/NetBeansProjects/mylib/dist/mylib.jar:/h/USERS/local/pagola/NetBeansProjects/EOPPrototype/build/classes:.

What am i missing?

Properties init: Could not determine current working directory. happens in some JVM17 when there is no such directory and a user is running from inside of it. Ironically after doing a step back cd .. a user appears in .Trash directory there and if merely to repeat the last command in log sometimes there is one such as the application is started by user_name in /Users/user_name/.Trash. — Oleksii Kyslytsyn
– Oleksii Kyslytsyn, Commented Nov 13, 2024 at 16:18

asmaier · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-25 10:52:27Z

219

I saw the same error when I was trying to call java -version inside a directory, which I already had deleted from another terminal session. Of course in that case java could not determine the current working directory, simply because it didn't exist.

edited Jan 25, 2013 at 10:52

answered Jan 25, 2013 at 10:44

asmaier

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6 Comments

Steven Magana-Zook Over a year ago

this happened to me when i issued a command in the maven target directory that: was present, then i did a clean and build (clean install), then issued the same command. Even though the path was still valid, the specific directory entry i issued the command in first was not there (OS X) doing a cd ../target fixed my issue

basickarl Over a year ago

..aaand how does one fix this?

Webel IT Australia - upvoter Over a year ago

I had the same problem calling java -v from /Applications/NetBeans-8.1beta/glassfish-4.1/glassfish/domains/domain1/generated. That 'generated' folder is a regenerated cache folder from NetBeans. When I cd-ed out then back to the same /generated the problem did not happen and java -version worked giving java version "1.8.0_60"

deldev Over a year ago

Simply get out and enter again in the directory

Matt Welke Over a year ago

What a weird issue. Happened to me tonight and this was exactly what it was. I was inside <project>/target/classes in a terminal, ran a mvn clean compile, and then tried re-running the java command from the first terminal. I guess the Maven command deleting and re-creating the directory screwed the old terminal up. Using cd to go back to the project root and then back into the classes directory fixed it for me.

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user9427004 · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-01 04:22:08Z

Solution: cd to another directory and run that command again, that works for me.

See explanation here: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8186434

fir3storm · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-31 14:08:21Z

14

In Fedora 21, I tried calling the "java -version" after an uninstall and it gave the above error. Close all the terminals and open them again and try.

Should work.

answered Mar 31, 2015 at 14:08

fir3storm

1411 silver badge3 bronze badges

3 Comments

deFreitas Over a year ago

Same for me, with ubuntu

Nanang F. Rozi Over a year ago

Same for me also, with LinuxMint 18.3.

andymel Over a year ago

Same for me with Debian in WSL

John Mark · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-17 15:31:41Z

I was getting the same error message, but I'm not sure if it was for the same reason as I don't use Netbeans. I use my terminal and compile with ant.

I cd'd to a directory to run a javafile.class file. The file I want to run is part of a bigger package. The directory structure of the package looked something like this: a/b/c/javafile.class. The a, b, and c directories are all part of a larger package.

To run my javafile.class, I cd'd into a and ran the file from there: java b/c/javafile. After I made some changes and recompiled with my ant script, the directory I was in had been deleted and remade by ant. So, when I ran javafile.class again, I got the error you're getting.

I fixed my problem by cding out of the directories that are deleted and remade by ant and then running my javafile.class again.

Thanks. Navigating out of a high-up directory and down to a lower one, then re-running my command fixed the issue for me too.

Martin Ding · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-05 05:54:00Z

maybe you did not config java environment on your workstation correctly

the following configurations were what I did in my mac

vi ~/.bash_profile

and add those in it

JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_40.jdk/Contents/Home PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH:. CLASSPATH=$JAVA_HOME/lib/tools.jar:$JAVA_HOME/lib/dt.jar:. export JAVA_HOME export PATH export CLASSPATH

replace

JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_40.jdk/Contents/Home

with your jdk version and then run

source ~/.bash_profile

to use these config immediately then you can check by

java -version

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

I got the same error -

Error occurred during initialization of VM

java.lang.Error: Properties init: Could not determine current working directory.

by just doing 'java -version' (you would think it wouldn't need to bring up a virtual machine just to answer a simple question like 'what version are you?')

A higher up element (that between the slashes) of the directory path of the pwd had spaces in it. When I made the current working directory one which from / downward didn't have any spaces the 'java -version' command got a proper response.

I'm concluding they didn't account for directories with spaces when they programmed it. But that was version 1.7. I've now loaded version 8 so hopefully it has been corrected.

I had the same problem calling java -v from /Applications/NetBeans-8.1beta/glassfish-4.1/glassfish/domains/domain1/generated (has dots and hyphens, not spaces, but they might also cause problems [NO, see EDIT]). Then I got OK java version "1.8.0_60" (seems is still a problem with Java8. EDIT: it was because that 'generated' folder is a regenerated cache folder from NetBeans. When I cd-ed out then back to the same /generated it did not happen. asmaier (below) is right.

randominstanceOfLivingThing · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-20 16:52:36Z

I got this error on Mac OS X and this is a genuine error since the directory has vanished. The directory I was when I am executing the commands is <PROJECT DIR>\target.

The problem was I opened two terminals in the other terminal I ran mvn clean install and the target directory from PROJECT DIR got deleted and recreated.

My old terminal from where I was executing Java commands is not in a valid directory.

The file descriptor is invalid since the directory got deleted by Maven.

When I moved back to the parent directory and the changed back to the target directory, the java command started working correctly as expected.

Eamonn Kenny · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-27 10:47:06Z

Under CentOS, rhel, SL or SLC? Not an issue under debian/ubuntu.

I found you need to logout of the shell you are using and log back in. The environment is not set up initially correctly for the current shell. After login I see that: java -version will work.

Also ensure that /etc/alternatives/java actually points to something reasonable like:

ls -lisa /etc/alternatives/java 72645 0 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 46 May 27 11:29 /etc/alternatives/java -> /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.7.0-openjdk.x86_64/bin/java

Jacob · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-20 06:15:05Z

Just now, i got the same error. because i use java to setreuid/setregid to apache:apache, when i change back to root:root, i changed gid before uid, the real result is root:apache. everything going wrong, such as the error say "java.lang.Error: Properties init: Could not determine current working directory. "

you can check it.

Kannan Ramamoorthy · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-06 07:05:45Z

I was having this error in my mac, when I start tomcat from my eclipse. After setting JAVA_HOME and restarting the eclipse, the error is fixed.

shin · Accepted Answer · 2022-08-22 11:58:36Z

You have to install default-jdk first ! sudo apt install default-jdk only version 11 does not set all the environment correctly in place of : sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk

bhlowe · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-30 05:17:13Z

You may get this error if you issue "java -version" or other java command from a read-only directory. For example using openjdk 8 on centos (as non-root user):

cd /usr/bin java -version

Error occurred during initialization of VM java.lang.Error: Properties init: Could not determine current working directory.

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