java -cp "lib/" versus java -cp "lib/.jar"

Question

If the lib/ directory contains only .jar files, what's the difference between

java -cp "lib/*" ...

and

java -cp "lib/*.jar" ...

If I use the latter I ran into errors regarding main class and I don't understand why. lib/* also contains lib/., but is this the crucial difference?

Are you asking about `-cp` or `-jar`? Your title and the question body disagree about that. — Joachim Sauer, Feb 17 '10 at 15:43
Your subject line says you're using -cp, but your question says -jar. Which is it? You're doing it wrong in either case, but it's important to be clear in your question. — Jonathan Feinberg, Feb 17 '10 at 15:44
Yes, there's a need to downvote, if the question is "unclear or not useful". Since you've corrected it, I'll remove the downvote! — Jonathan Feinberg, Feb 17 '10 at 15:50

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 17 '10 at 15:45

4

According to the documentation of java only a basename of * is supported and it only ever matches .jar files.

Nothing in the documentation suggests that "*.jar" is supported or that the directory itself is added to the classpath.

answered Feb 17 '10 at 15:45

Joachim Sauer

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Thank you. I was under the impression that some sort of expansion was done for `*.jar` as well, but it seems I was wrong. – Alexandru Feb 17 '10 at 15:49
Yes add the path again explicitly if you want it too be added as well. – Ujjwal Singh Dec 20 '13 at 13:52

java -cp "lib/*" versus java -cp "lib/*.jar"

1 Answers1

java -cp "lib/" versus java -cp "lib/.jar"