With the directory on the classpath, from a class loaded by the same classloader, you should be able to use either of:
// From ClassLoader, all paths are "absolute" already - there's no context
// from which they could be relative. Therefore you don't need a leading slash.
InputStream in = this.getClass().getClassLoader()
.getResourceAsStream("SomeTextFile.txt");
// From Class, the path is relative to the package of the class unless
// you include a leading slash, so if you don't want to use the current
// package, include a slash like this:
InputStream in = this.getClass().getResourceAsStream("/SomeTextFile.txt");
If those aren’t working, that suggests something else is wrong.
So for example, take this code:
package dummy;
import java.io.*;
public class Test
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
InputStream stream = Test.class.getResourceAsStream("/SomeTextFile.txt");
System.out.println(stream != null);
stream = Test.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("SomeTextFile.txt");
System.out.println(stream != null);
}
}
And this directory structure:
code
dummy
Test.class
txt
SomeTextFile.txt
And then (using the Unix path separator as I’m on a Linux box):
java -classpath code:txt dummy.Test
Results: