java.opt file adding -D parameters

Matlab version R2012a Linux

So I want to be able to add various jVM "-D" parameters to the "java.opt" file so that when matlab starts up the JVM these are passed in and accessible with the System.getProperty() function. I want students to be able to pass in things like the IP address of a database server, etc. etc. to the various java classes called.

I have looked high and low and there seems to be no definitive answer to this.

I have tried:

java.opt in the working directory. java.opt in the %MATLABROOT/bin/[ARCH] directory.

and neither seem to work. Am I approaching this wrong or ??

Little help would be appreciated.

[Raymond Norris]

That's odd. With R2012b on Windows 7, I've defined java.opts as such:

-DRunTime=12hrs

and placed it in $matlab/bin/$arch. Then in MATLAB, I run:

>> java.lang.System.getProperty('RunTime')
ans =
12hrs
>>