java - How to pass Properties to jar from Powershell?

Question

I've been using Powershell-1.0 for command line needs for a while, instead of cmd.exe. Unfortunately, there are still some caveats when using Java. I need to pass a property to a jar, like that:

java -jar -Duser.language=en any.jar

This line works fine in cmd.exe, but not in Powershell as it searches for another jar:

Unable to access jarfile user.language=en

Using quotes doesn't help.

Is it doable in Powershell-1.0, or do I miss something in Java?

Answer 1

Take a look at my answer to this question. Note how you can use echoargs.exe to diagnose these sort of problems. Most likely the fix would be to quote the parameter e.g.:

java -jar "-Duser.language=en" any.jar

You can test that using echoargs (from PowerShell Community Extensions):

echoargs -jar "-Duser.language=en" any.jar
Arg 0 is <-jar>
Arg 1 is <-Duser.language=en>
Arg 2 is <any.jar>