JDK-8011195 : Apps launched via webstart have file.encoding value of US-ASCII on Mac OS X
  • Type: Bug
  • Component: deploy
  • Sub-Component: webstart
  • Affected Version: 7u40,8
  • Priority: P3
  • Status: Resolved
  • Resolution: Cannot Reproduce
  • OS: os_x
  • Submitted: 2013-04-01
  • Updated: 2014-03-21
  • Resolved: 2014-03-21
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JDK 7
7-poolResolved
Related Reports
Relates :  
JDK-7193966 - [macosx] [regresison from Apple's Java 6] non-ascii chars can not be read or displayed, causing files to not load, files not found
Relates :  
JDK-8011194 - Apps launched via double-clicked .jars have file.encoding value of US-ASCII on Mac OS X
Relates :  
JDK-8003228 - (props) sun.jnu.encoding should be set to UTF-8 [macosx]
Description
JDK-8003228 fixed a problem on OS X with filenames containing non-ASCII characters. For instance, such files would not show up in file chooser dialogs under certain circumstances (launching via webstart or double-clicked .jars, or from the Terminal with LANG=C). Post-8003228, the sun.jnu.encoding property is always set to UTF-8 on Mac OS X.

The problem remains that once the file is loaded, non-ASCII characters *contained* in files do not display correctly. This is due to the "file.encoding" property being set to US-ASCII for apps launched with webstart.
Comments
I don't see this happening with recent build of 8 (and likely 9). When LANG=C is set on the command line, file.encoding is set to US-ASCII, however if it's null or en_US.UTF-8 then file.encoding is UTF-8 as would be expected. When I launch from the Finder it shows LANG=null and file.encoding=UTF-8. If LANG or LC_ALL is set to C then setting file.encoding to US-ASCII seems appropriate, since C and POSIX both imply 7 bit ASCII. I tested with jdk8 plugin and webstart (url from command line and launched by double clicking the jnlp file) and in all cases it seems to be behaving properly.
03-03-2014
See JDK-8011194 for a test case, except to reproduce, build the project to run with webstart, and in the Finder double click on the .jnlp file.
01-04-2013