Reflections & Reference Objects - ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream vs... http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=251367&messageID=...

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Reflections & Reference Objects -
ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream vs.
Class.getResourceAsStream
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» FAQ medale94 ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream vs.
» Code of Conduct Posts:4 Class.getResourceAsStream
Registered: May 3, 2002 10:52 AM Reply »
10/29/99

Search Forums Does anyone know why the two methods are implemented with
different semantics? It seems that Class.getResourceAsStream
» supports the more intuitive absolute vs. relative path concept, while
ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream only supports absolute path
with "/" implied:

Directory structure (where classpath will be set to "classes" dir) and

content of the hello.txt file:

classes/hello.txt -> (content: File in /hello.txt)

classes/medale/test/hello.txt -> (content: File in
/medale/test/hello.txt)
classes/medale/test/medale/test/hello.txt -> (content: File in
/medale/test/medale/test/hello.txt)

All methods are executed from a class in package medale.test (see

source code and ant file below):

Using:
this.getClass().getResourceAsStream("hello.txt")

prints out:
File in /medale/test/hello.txt - File read in relative to current class
which was loaded from /medale/test

Using:
this.getClass().getResourceAsStream("/hello.txt")

prints out:
File in /hello.txt - File read using absolute path

Using:
this.getClass().getResourceAsStream("medale/test/hello.txt")

prints out:

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Reflections & Reference Objects - ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream vs... http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=251367&messageID=...

File in /medale/test/medale/test/hello.txt - again relative

Using:
this.getClass().getResourceAsStream("/medale/test/hello.txt")

prints out:File in /medale/test/hello.txt - absolute path

So far - as expected however:

this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("hello.txt")

Prints out:
File in /hello.txt

Using:
this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("/hello.txt")

Returns null

Same with "/medale/test/hello.txt" -> null and "medale/test/hello.txt"

-> File in /medale/test/hello.txt"

Why the differing implementations?

Here is the code I used for testing this:

package medale.test;

import java.io.*;

public class CLTest {

public CLTest() throws IOException {

final String[] RES_FILES = {"hello.txt",
"/hello.txt",
"medale/test/hello.txt",
"/medale/test/hello.txt"};
System.out.println("Running code using this.getClass()."
+ "getResourceAsStream(RES_FILES)");
for (int i=0; i < RES_FILES.length; i++) {
try {
System.out.print("Result generated using file path >>"
+ RES_FILES
+"<< : ");
BufferedReader bin = new BufferedReader
(new InputStreamReader
(this.getClass().getResourceAsStream(RES_FILES)));
if (bin != null) {
System.out.println(bin.readLine());
bin.close();
} else {
System.out.println("Unable to retrieve InputStream");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
}
System.out.println("\n\nRunning code using this.getClass()."
+ "getClassLoader()."
+ "getResourceAsStream(RES_FILES)");
for (int i=0; i < RES_FILES.length; i++) {
try {
System.out.print("Result generated using file path >>"
+ RES_FILES
+"<< : ");
BufferedReader bin = new BufferedReader
(new InputStreamReader

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Reflections & Reference Objects - ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream vs... http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=251367&messageID=...

(this.getClass().
getClassLoader().
getResourceAsStream(RES_FILES)));
if (bin != null) {
System.out.println(bin.readLine());
bin.close();
} else {
System.out.println("Unable to retrieve InputStream");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
}
System.out.println("\n\nRunning code using
Thread.currentThread()."
+ "getContextClassLoader()."
+ "getResourceAsStream(RES_FILES)");
for (int i=0; i < RES_FILES.length; i++) {
try {
System.out.print("Result generated using file path >>"
+ RES_FILES
+"<< : ");
BufferedReader bin = new BufferedReader
(new InputStreamReader
(Thread.currentThread().
getContextClassLoader().
getResourceAsStream(RES_FILES)));
if (bin != null) {
System.out.println(bin.readLine());
bin.close();
} else {
System.out.println("Unable to retrieve InputStream");
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
}
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

CLTest test = new CLTest();
}
}

And here is my ant file that runs the test:

<project name="Testing" default="compile" basedir=".">

<property name="src.dir" value="src"/>
<property name="class.dir" value="classes"/>

<!-- Prepare all directories

Creates the following structure:
${class.dir}/hello.txt (content: File in /hello.txt)
${class.dir}/medale/test/hello.txt (content: File in
/medale/test/hello.txt)
${class.dir}/medale/test/medale/test/hello.txt (content: File in
/medale/test/medale/test/hello.txt)
-->
<target name="prepare">
<mkdir dir="${class.dir}/medale/test/medale/test"/>
<copy file="${src.dir}/hello.txt" todir="${class.dir}"/>
<copy file="${src.dir}/medale/test/hello.txt"
todir="${class.dir}/medale/test"/>
<copy file="${src.dir}/medale/test/medale/test/hello.txt"
todir="${class.dir}/medale/test/medale/test"/>

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</target>

<!-- Compile all source code in src and place in classes -->
<target name="compile" depends="prepare">
<javac classpath="${class.dir}"
srcdir="${src.dir}"
destdir="${class.dir}"/>
</target>

<!-- execute Main in separate JVM -->

<target name="run" depends="compile">
<java classpath="${class.dir}"
fork="yes"
classname="medale.test.CLTest">
</java>
</target>

<target name="clean">
<delete dir="${class.dir}"/>
</target>
</project>

Any thoughts on this differing behaviour would be much

appreciated (maybe I am doing something wrong?)

Thanks,
Markus

fiontan Re: ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream vs.

Posts:761 Class.getResourceAsStream
Registered: May 4, 2002 1:49 AM (reply 1 of 1) Reply »
11/12/97

Does anyone know why the two methods are

implemented
with different semantics? It seems that
Class.getResourceAsStream supports the more
intuitive
absolute vs. relative path concept, while
ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream only supports
absolute
path with "/" implied:

Well, a Class has a path relative to which a resouce may be

located - its package. A ClassLoader simply has a findResource
method to determine where to look. Given the difference in
context, I'm not particularly surprised that the implementations
differ.

The system ClassLoader will search for the given file relative to the
system classpath... although I am surprised that including a leading
slash means that /classes/hello.txt isn't found.

I'd generally suggest that using Class.getResourceAsStream

usually makes more sense, unless you need to specifically control
where the resource is going to be located and/or which classloader
is going to load the resource.

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