Mac OS/Linux: How to set Java Default Character Encoding to UTF-8

Updated June 10th, 2026

0.7 min read

For some Mac OS/Linux Machines, Java does not have default UTF-8 encoding. This is necessary when generating data with special characters (Swedish characters, Japanese characters, etc.).

The steps in this article can be used to manually set Java's character encoding to UTF-8. For this example, the screenshot examples are for Mac OS.

Step 1 - Open bash.profile in a Terminal Window

Open the shell startup file through a terminal window. This is typically bash.profile.

Enter this command to open your .bash_profile:

nano bash.profile

Step 2 - Add this line to the Shell start-up file

Enter this line into your shell start-up file.

export JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=-Dfile.encoding=UTF8

Step 3 - Exit and Save Changes

Use Control + X to exit and save the changes.
Enter Y to save the change
Then press the Enter key to finish.

Step 4 - Run the Scenario

Run the Scenario at the command line using the genrocket -r command.
The following line will appear in the terminal window during test data generation: