Reference all jars from a folder

Question

I'm executing a java application in DOS command window using something like

java -cp abcclient.jar;junit-4.4.jar;myapp.jar MyMainClass

I need to reference many other jars that are found in a specific folder outside my application folder. Is there anyway I could state a folder name in the above command line to let java refer to the necessary jars from that folder.

Thanks

Answer 1

With java6, you can use a wildcard in classpath entries, so:

java -cp "abcclient.jar;junit-4.4.jar;myapp.jar;..\lib\*" MyMainClass

should work

(There's some problems explained here though http://javahowto.blogspot.com/2006/07/jdk-6-supports-in-classpath-but-be.html )

Answer 2

The very simplest way to do it is with the extensions mechanism:

java -Djava.ext.dirs=lib MyMainClass

For javac, the equivalent is the -extdirs flag:

javac -extdirs lib MyMainClass.java

It's not ideal - particularly if you also want to use the normal extensions - but it can be a useful little shortcut in some cases.