How do I run a java program from a different directory?

Question

I have a java program that I would like to be able to run from anywhere on my machine. I would like to run it from my Cygwin command prompt. I've made scripts to call the java program. I added the location of the java program to the classpath, and the scripts work when I run them from the java program's directory. However, when I try to run from any other directory, I get:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: commandprogram/CommandProgram

This is my script:

#!/bin/sh
CWD=`dirname "$0"`
java -cp "$CWD/classes;$CWD/lib/AJarFile.jar" commandprogram/CommandProgram

Changing the java line to the following:

java -cp "$CWD/classes;$CWD/classes/commandprogram;$CWD/lib/AJarFile.jar" CommandProgram

produces the same results.

could you post your script, that will give people a better idea on where to look at... — Cesar Hermosillo, Jul 27 '09 at 19:15
Don't you need to do java commandprogram/CommandProgram.class or java -jar commandprogram/CommandProgram.jar? — Thomas Owens, Jul 27 '09 at 19:29
isnt' the path separator a colon (:) instead of the semicolon (;) you've used? — Ryan Fernandes, Jul 28 '09 at 03:21
The path separator is a colon on *nix, semicolon on Windows. I'm not sure which one you use in cygwin. — Xiong Chiamiov, Jul 29 '09 at 21:09

score 30 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 27 '09 at 19:16

30

add your directory to classpath example:

java -classpath commandprogram CommandProgram

or

java -classpath directory_to_program Program

answered Jul 27 '09 at 19:16

woakas

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score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '09 at 19:46

After trying just about everything I could think of, I echoed out the command and saw that there was mixing of Cygwin paths and Windows paths. The solution was to change the script to:

#!/bin/sh
CWD=`dirname "$0"`
CWD=`cygpath -w "$CWD"`
java -cp "$CWD/classes;$CWD/lib/AJarFile.jar" commandprogram/CommandProgram

Then CWD changed to "C:\Program Files\..." instead of "/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/..."

I had previously encountered this problem and solved it with the cygpath -w solution, but then changed my script slightly and didn't notice that the path problem came back.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 27 '09 at 19:36

1

you have to use a dot to separate packages, not a slash.

java -cp "$CWD/classes;$CWD/lib/AJarFile.jar" commandprogram.CommandProgram

answered Jul 27 '09 at 19:36

cd1

15,908
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47

/ works too. Keep in mind that the script works when I'm in the directory with the scripts. – Swoogan Jul 27 '09 at 19:37

score -10 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 03 '12 at 20:37

-10

The usual way of running a java file is to save it in the Java/Bin folder and Run cmd

C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_05\bin> javac filename.java && java classname

If you save the file in different directory such as D:, you can use the following on the cmd prompt:

D:\Project java> set path=%path%;C:Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_05\bin

edited Jul 03 '12 at 20:37

Dhara

6,587
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answered Jul 03 '12 at 16:24

Kaushik

1
1

11

Saving your java files or class files in the Java `bin` directory is, in fact, very unusual and should be avoided. The Java `bin` directory is for Java's own binary files and *nothing* else. – Mac Oct 11 '12 at 00:47

How do I run a java program from a different directory?

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