Launch .jar with config outside of jar, but be abl

I've been wrestling with a particular problem. I have a Java program in a .jar file, and I have a lib directory and a config directory outside of the .jar, but in the same directory as the jar itself exists in.

I am trying to reference config/foo.config from within the code. Referencing it as a relative file works if I'm in the same directory as the jar. I've also tried using getResourceAsStream and making sure config is in the classpath.

So far, so good, but I also have to be able to launch the .jar from any directory.

So, if my structure is like so:

/prog/util/myprog/myprog.jar
/prog/util/myprog/config
/prog/util/myprog/config/foo.config
/prog/util/myprog/lib

(and a whole bunch of 3rd party jars within lib)

How do I correctly set up the classpath in my Manifest file so that config can be referenced?

The classpath in my manifest looks like so: Class-Path: config/ lib/jar1.jar lib/jar2.jar (etc)

I am currently using getResourceAsStream("/foo.config").

This all works if I am in the /prog/util/myprog directory and run:

java -jar myproj.jar

However, I cannot, say, be in /prog and run:

java -jar util/myprog/myprog.jar

When I do this, the config file cannot be found.

How do I solve this issue?

EDIT: Some additional notes based on comments/suggestions, though I'm not sure this is feasible:

1) We can't use an absolute path for the file system, we don't know where the program will be stored, just that the config directory will be in the same directory as the jar.

2) I would like to be able to have something that works both when the code is jar'd, but also would work not-jar'd such as when I'm running in debug mode in Eclipse. At that point, the config directory is a sibling of the src, bin, and lib directories.

EDIT Part 2: Ok, between a colleague and myself, we came up with the following: String configDirectory = new File(QueueMonitor.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getPath()).getParent() + "/config";

When we are in Eclipse and running in debug mode, the File object points to the bin directory, so getting the parent then appending "/config" works for our needs during development/testing.

Likewise, from a .jar file, the File object points to the jar itself, so getting the parent and appending "/config" gives us what we need as well.

I'm a little hesitant, though. I'm wondering if there's some potential problem or unintended consequence that I am not seeing in this solution. Any thoughts on that?

You should be able to use the Finding the path to a jar from a Class inside it? technique to find the location of your jar. From there it's just a matter of climbing in/out of folders.