Suppose we have a package called org.mypackage containing the classes:
and the files defining this package are stored physically under the directory D:\myprogram (on Windows) or /home/user/myprogram (on Linux).
The file structure will look like this:
Microsoft Windows | Linux |
---|---|
D:\myprogram\ | ---> org\ | ---> mypackage\ | ---> HelloWorld.class ---> SupportClass.class ---> UtilClass.class |
/home/user/myprogram/ | ---> org/ | ---> mypackage/ | ---> HelloWorld.class ---> SupportClass.class ---> UtilClass.class |
When we invoke Java, we specify the name of the application to run: org.mypackage.HelloWorld. However we must also tell Java where to look for the files and directories defining our package. So to launch the program, we use the following command:
Microsoft Windows | Linux |
---|---|
java -classpath D:\myprogram org.mypackage.HelloWorld |
java -classpath /home/user/myprogram org.mypackage.HelloWorld |
where:
Note that if we ran Java in D:\myprogram\ (on Linux, /home/user/myprogram/) then we would not need to specify the classpath since Java implicitly looks in the current working directory for files containing classes.
In Java 6 and higher, one can add all jar-files in a specific directory to the classpath using wildcard notation.
Windows example:
java -classpath ".;c:\mylib\*" MyApp
Linux example:
java -classpath '.:/mylib/*' MyApp
The environment variable named CLASSPATH may be alternatively used to set the classpath. For the above example, we could also use on Windows:
Sometimes you have to check the JAVA_HOME also, if it is pointing towards the right JDK version
set CLASSPATH=D:\myprogram java org.mypackage.HelloWorld
Now, suppose the program uses a supporting library enclosed in a Jar file called supportLib.jar, physically in the directory D:\myprogram\lib\.
The corresponding physical file structure is:
D:\myprogram\ | ---> lib\ | ---> supportLib.jar | ---> org\ | --> mypackage\ | ---> HelloWorld.class ---> SupportClass.class ---> UtilClass.class
We should use the following command-line option:
java -classpath D:\myprogram;D:\myprogram\lib\supportLib.jar org.mypackage.HelloWorld
or alternatively:
set CLASSPATH=D:\myprogram;D:\myprogram\lib\supportLib.jar java org.mypackage.HelloWorld
Suppose that our program has been enclosed in a Jar file called helloWorld.jar, put directly in the D:\myprogram directory. We have the following file structure:
D:\myprogram\ | ---> helloWorld.jar | ---> lib\ | ---> supportLib.jar
The manifest file defined in this Jar file has this definition:
Main-Class: org.mypackage.HelloWorld Class-Path: lib/supportLib.jar
Note: It's important that the manifest file ends with either a new line or carriage return.
Also, note that the classpath string in this case describes the location of the supportLib.jar file relative to the location of the helloWorld.jar file, and not as an absolute file path (as it might be when setting the -classpath parameter on the command line, for example). Thus, the actual locations of the jar file and its support library are irrelevant so long as the relative directory structure between the two is preserved.
To launch the program, we can use the following command:
java -jar D:\myprogram\helloWorld.jar
It is not necessary to define the Classpath to the program classes, or the support library classes, because it is already defined in the manifest file.
Caution, it is useless to define the Main class at launch, the manifest of the JAR file must contain a line of the form
Main-Class: classname
in order for the -jar option to work JavaDoc.
The syntax for specifying multiple library JAR files in the manifest file is to separate the entries with a space:
Class-Path: lib/supportLib.jar lib/supportLib2.jar
Being closely associated with the file system, the command-line Classpath syntax depends on the operating system. For example:
This does not apply when the Classpath is defined in manifest files, where each file path must be separated by a space (""), regardless of the operating system.
Application programmers may want to find out/debug the current settings under which the application is running:
System.getProperty("java.class.path")