Chinese encoding issue while listing files

Question

I am running a Java application on a Solaris10 with Chinese. Now there are some files in a directory with chinese filenames. When I do files = new File(dir).list() where "dir" is the parent directory containing that chinese file, I get the result filename files[0] as ?????(some junk characters).

Now the deal is that my programs file.encoding property is already set to GBK and I also do Charset.isSupported("GBK") and it returns true too. So where could be the problem. I am running out of ideas.

NOTE: I am not trying to print the filename anywhere or copy the file or something. I am simply openeing a stream to it, something like below:

files = new File(dir).list();
new FileInputStream(files[0]);

Now this gives me a FileNotFoundExcpetion, so I debug just to find that value inside files[0] is "??????".

Answer 1

I guess this problem has nothing to do with Java side. Maybe you could try to change your system locale. check the conf file:

/etc/sysconfig/i18n

backup your old conf, try with following settings:

LANG="zh_CN.GBK"
LANGUAGE="zh_CN.GBK:zh_CN.GB18030:zh_CN.GB2312:zh_CN"
SUPPORTED="zh_CN.GB18030:zh_CN:zh:en_US.UTF-8:en_US:en"
SYSFONT="lat0-sun16" 

You may need to do a reboot to make the change come into effect.

hope it works.

Answer 2

Not sure if it a good practice of doing it . try setting the charset when you launch the jvm using : java -Dfile.encoding="" ...

Answer 3

ok can you try this instead

//String[] files = new File(dir).list(); 
File[] files = new File(dir).listFiles(); //use 'File' references instead.
FileInputStream fos = new FileInputStream(files[0]);

This removes the dependencies on file names and works directly with the File object.