javafileutf-8jetty-9file-encodings

What does -Dfile.encoding = UTF-8 do in JAVA_OPTIONS

Any idea what does -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 in 

JAVA_OPTIONS="${JAVA_OPTIONS} -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8"

do? I have this option in my jetty server configuration.

If i dont have it, what might be consequence?

Solution

  • It sets a property which defines in which encoding will Java save and read files by default. It must be set at JVM startup.

    There are multiple encodings - ways to represent characters on computers. UTF-8 is one of the best to use, as it contains all special characters in many languages.

    Once you don't have this property, Java might save files in a different encoding which might lead to strange characters when opening the file with text editor. You can avoid this issue by manually setting the desired encoding to your OutputStreams.