Properties.md

Using System Properties in Native Images

Assume you have the following Java Program:

public class App {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.getProperties().list(System.out);
    }
}

If you compile that with, e.g., native-image -Dfoo=bar App the system property foo will be available at image build time. For example, whenever you are in the code that is part of your application but executed at image build time (usually static field initializations and static initializers). Thus if you execute the image above it will not contain foo in the list of properties.

If, on the other hand, you execute the image with app -Dfoo=bar, it will show foo in the list of properties because you specified it for image run time.

In other words:

• Passing -D<key>=<value> to native-image affects properties seen at image build time.
• Passing -D<key>=<value> to an image execution affects properties seen at image run time.