In java -D what does the D stand for?

Question

What does the D in

-Dproperty=value

Set a system property value.

of the java application launcher stand for? For some reason it\'s been

Answer 1

In C/C++ compilers the similar syntax is used to define preprocessor macros from the command line:

#include 
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
    printf(GREETING);
    return 0;
}

.

gcc hello.c -DGREETING="\"Hello, world\""

Java doesn't have a preprocessor, but properties defined with -D are ofter used for the similar reason - to pass some program-specific information about the current environment. The only difference is that in Java we pass them in runtime, not in compile-time:

public class Hello {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(System.getProperty("greeting"));
    }
}

.

java -Dgreeting="Hello, world" Hello

I think this similarity is the source of similar syntax.