"Expecting / to follow the hostname in URI" exception when password contains @

Question

I am trying to copy local system file to server ``` package classes; import java.io.File; import java.io.FileInputStream; import java.io.InputStream; import java.util.Properties; import org.apache.commons.vfs.FileObject; import org.apache.commons.vfs.FileSystemOptions; import org.apache.commons.vfs.Selectors; import org.apache.commons.vfs.impl.StandardFileSystemManager; import org.apache.commons.vfs.provider.sftp.SftpFileSystemConfigBuilder; public class SendMyFiles { public static void main(String[] args) { SendMyFiles sendMyFiles = new SendMyFiles(); String fileToFTP = "zcol_30092013.xls"; sendMyFiles.startFTP(fileToFTP); } public boolean startFTP(String fileToFTP){ Properties prop = new Properties(); InputStream in = getClass().getResourceAsStream("/config.properties"); StandardFileSystemManager manager = new StandardFileSystemManager(); try { prop.load(in); String serverAddress = prop.getProperty("serverAddress").trim(); String userId = prop.getProperty("userId").trim(); String pa…

Accepted Answer

If your password contains `@`, the URL parser considers it a userinfo/hostname separator. It then scans for a hostname, stopping on the next `@`, which separates the actual hostname. Next it checks that the first character after the hostname is `/`, what it is not, as it is `@`. The logic does not make much sense to me, but explains the confusing error message

Expecting / to follow the hostname in URI

But in any case, even if the logic was better, you cannot have a literal `@` in your password or username. You have to URL-encode it to `%40`.

If your username/password is variable, you should better encode it generically using the `UriParser.encode`:

```
public static String encode(String decodedStr)
```

"Expecting / to follow the hostname in URI" exception when password contains @

Solution

Problem