title: Standard Config File Location for a Java Library?
body: <p>For my current project (<a href="http://better-checks.trick17.ch/" rel="nofollow">Better Checks - a small argument validation library</a>), I am trying to figure out where (in the classpath) the applications using the library should put the configuration file. It is a .properties file with customized error message formats.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a standard or de facto standard location for library config files?</p>
  
  <p>My current take is <code>/better-checks.properties</code>. I am a bit worried that this is not a good idea, since it is directly in the root of the classpath and might <em>theoretically</em> collide with some other file.</p>
  
  <p>An alternative would be to put it into the root package of the library, <code>/ch/trick17/betterchecks/config.properties</code> which would prevent name collisions but seems a bit weird.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit:</strong> Take into account that if I want to support internationalization by using resource bundles, applications might end up with many <code>better-checks_*.properties</code> in the classpath root. This is not very nice, is it?</p>