Meaning of “*:” in java classpath specification

Question

I have a Java project uncompiled. Entry point is the main method in maui.main.MauiModelBuilder which is passed some parameters by command line.

The author of the code provides this suggestion to compile it:

java -cp "lib/*:src" maui.main.MauiModelBuilder -l data/automatic_tagging/train/ -m test -v none

What's the meaning of "lib/*:src" in this case? I never saw such a syntax.

Answer 1

Actually, you are parsing this syntax incorrectly in your head. You should be reading it as "lib/*" and "src" . This syntax means that we are adding:

• all files under the lib folder
• the src file

to the classpath of java .

: is used as a separator for classpath entry.

Answer 2

'*' is a wildcard character that match anything.

In this case 'lib/*' add all file under 'lib' directory and ':' is a seperator thus 'src' also included.

So your 'lib/*:src' add all file under 'lib' directory and 'src' under current directory.

Answer 3

"lib/*:src" means to include all files under lib directory and src. ":" is used as separator,