Can you find all classes in a package using reflection?

Question

Is it possible to find all classes or interfaces in a given package? (Quickly looking at e.g. Package, it would seem like no.)

Answer 1

I put together a simple github project that solves this problem:

https://github.com/ddopson/java-class-enumerator

It should work for BOTH file-based classpaths AND for jar files.

If you run 'make' after checking out the project it will print this out:

 Cleaning...
rm -rf build/
 Building...
javac -d build/classes src/pro/ddopson/ClassEnumerator.java src/test/ClassIShouldFindOne.java src/test/ClassIShouldFindTwo.java src/test/subpkg/ClassIShouldFindThree.java src/test/TestClassEnumeration.java
 Making JAR Files...
jar cf build/ClassEnumerator_test.jar -C build/classes/ . 
jar cf build/ClassEnumerator.jar -C build/classes/ pro
 Running Filesystem Classpath Test...
java -classpath build/classes test.TestClassEnumeration
ClassDiscovery: Package: 'test' becomes Resource: 'file:/Users/Dopson/work/other/java-class-enumeration/build/classes/test'
ClassDiscovery: Reading Directory '/Users/Dopson/work/other/java-class-enumeration/build/classes/test'
ClassDiscovery: FileName 'ClassIShouldFindOne.class'  =>  class 'test.ClassIShouldFindOne'
ClassDiscovery: FileName 'ClassIShouldFindTwo.class'  =>  class 'test.ClassIShouldFindTwo'
ClassDiscovery: FileName 'subpkg'  =>  class 'null'
ClassDiscovery: Reading Directory '/Users/Dopson/work/other/java-class-enumeration/build/classes/test/subpkg'
ClassDiscovery: FileName 'ClassIShouldFindThree.class'  =>  class 'test.subpkg.ClassIShouldFindThree'
ClassDiscovery: FileName 'TestClassEnumeration.class'  =>  class 'test.TestClassEnumeration'
 Running JAR Classpath Test...
java -classpath build/ClassEnumerator_test.jar  test.TestClassEnumeration
ClassDiscovery: Package: 'test' becomes Resource: 'jar:file:/Users/Dopson/work/other/java-class-enumeration/build/ClassEnumerator_test.jar!/test'
ClassDiscovery: Reading JAR file: '/Users/Dopson/work/other/java-class-enumeration/build/ClassEnumerator_test.jar'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'META-INF/'  =>  class 'null'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'META-INF/MANIFEST.MF'  =>  class 'null'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'pro/'  =>  class 'null'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'pro/ddopson/'  =>  class 'null'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'pro/ddopson/ClassEnumerator.class'  =>  class 'null'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'test/'  =>  class 'null'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'test/ClassIShouldFindOne.class'  =>  class 'test.ClassIShouldFindOne'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'test/ClassIShouldFindTwo.class'  =>  class 'test.ClassIShouldFindTwo'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'test/subpkg/'  =>  class 'null'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'test/subpkg/ClassIShouldFindThree.class'  =>  class 'test.subpkg.ClassIShouldFindThree'
ClassDiscovery: JarEntry 'test/TestClassEnumeration.class'  =>  class 'test.TestClassEnumeration'
 Tests Passed. 

See also my other answer