question about program execution

[Mike McCarty]

Paolo Galtieri wrote:
> I have a strange problem that I'm not quite sure what the issue is or how to
> fix it.

It doesn't seem to need fixing.

[...]

> Note I have setup nautilus so that when I open a jar file it runs java -jar
> on that file.  This works and the program does execute.  However, rather
> than looking for the file in the local directory which I would expect to be
> /media/USB, since that is where I went to to run the program, it is looking

The "local directory" is the one which was CWD at the time the launch
took place, not the one where the file being viewed (your jar file)
resides. That's your home directory.

> for the files in my home directory.  The only way I have managed to get
> things to work is to copy the data files to my home directory before running
> the program.  This seems strange to me.  Is this normal behavior or is this
> some sort of security policy?

It is normal and expected behavior. Your file browser, when it got
launched, had your home directory as its CWD. That doesn't change
just because it is showing you files in other directories. Essentially,
it's just a fancy ls command. You wouldn't expect an ls to change
your CWD, would you?

Mike
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