Storing configuration file of an application in OS independent path

Question

I am writing an application (basically eclipse plugin), so there are few combo-box, drop-downs etc, which I am getting values for them dynamically via XML file. My doubt is which is the best way to store these files in a particular directory so that it can be read in both Windows as well as Linux.

Initially I tried to create a config path under {eclipse.home.location} like:

String finalPath = System.getProperty("eclipse.home.location") +"/myAppConfig";

and store all of my plugin's configuration there (not only configuration but few helper jars which I programatically read in my plugin). But there is a probabilty that Eclipse installation maybe in shared location and user may not have write access to it.

I also tried to store it in a program files directory using:

System.getenv("ProgramFiles");

But this fails under non-windows environments. So my question is can anyone shed a light on this so that I can store in some common directory where it is valid for both windows and linux? Kindly let me know if my wordings are confusing. Or is it possible to store my config files under plugins directory and get the path like this /plugins/myConfigDir ?

Answer 1

Try using the getStateLocation() method in Plugin.

That will give you an IPath that points to a user specific workspace location.