spring boot tomcat external properties file

Question

I have spring boot based war file deployed in tomcat. I am not able to use external application properties file. I am using following to provide the path of external properties file

X:\apache-tomcat-7.0.54\bin>startup.bat --Dspring.config.location=X:\conf\application.properties

I have also tried it with qoutes

X:\apache-tomcat-7.0.54\bin>startup.bat "--Dspring.config.location=X:\conf\application.properties"

These properties are not working and spring is reading properties file that are bundled inside the war file. Can anyone please help me with this? Thanks

Answer 1

Try

-Dspring.config.location=file:X:/conf/application.properties

You have to add file: if you need a file outside of classpath