# Codehaus Cargo : Passing system properties

Created by Former user, last modified by S. Ali Tokmen on Jan 28, 2021

### Definition

How to pass system properties that will be available to the container while executing

### Explanations

It is sometime useful to pass system properties to the container that is executing. These properties are then available to the code executing in the container.

### Example using the Java API

Starting Tomcat 3.x with some System properties set in the container JVM:

    InstalledLocalContainer container = new Tomcat3xInstalledLocalContainer(
        new TomcatStandaloneLocalConfiguration("target/tomcat3x"));
    container.setHome("c:/apps/jakarta-tomcat-3.3.2");

    Map props = new HashMap();
    props.put("mypropery", "myvalue");
    container.setSystemProperties(props);

    container.start();

### Example using the Ant task

Starting Tomcat 3.x with some System properties set in the container JVM:

    <cargo containerId="tomcat3x" home="c:/apps/jakarta-tomcat-3.3.2" action="start">
      <sysproperty key="myproperty" value="myvalue"/>
    </cargo>

Loading system properties from a file

It is also possible to load the system properties from a file - simply use the `systemPropertiesFile` attribute of the `cargo` XML element.

### Example using the Maven 3 plugin

Starting Tomcat 3.x with some System properties set in the container JVM:

    <container>
      [...]
      <systemProperties>
        <myproperty>myvalue</myproperty>
      </systemProperties>
    </container>