Including all the jars in a directory within the Java classpath

Question

Is there a way to include all the jar files within a directory in the classpath?

I\'m trying java -classpath lib/*.jar:. my.package.Program and it is no

Answer 1

Short answer: java -classpath lib/*:. my.package.Program

Oracle provides documentation on using wildcards in classpaths here for Java 6 and here for Java 7, under the section heading Understanding class path wildcards. (As I write this, the two pages contain the same information.) Here's a summary of the highlights:

• In general, to include all of the JARs in a given directory, you can use the wildcard * (not *.jar).

• The wildcard only matches JARs, not class files; to get all classes in a directory, just end the classpath entry at the directory name.

• The above two options can be combined to include all JAR and class files in a directory, and the usual classpath precedence rules apply. E.g. -cp /classes;/jars/*

• The wildcard will not search for JARs in subdirectories.

• The above bullet points are true if you use the CLASSPATH system property or the -cp or -classpath command line flags. However, if you use the Class-Path JAR manifest header (as you might do with an ant build file), wildcards will not be honored.

Yes, my first link is the same one provided in the top-scoring answer (which I have no hope of overtaking), but that answer doesn't provide much explanation beyond the link. Since that sort of behavior is discouraged on Stack Overflow these days, I thought I'd expand on it.