CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
Alessandro Power
Alessandro Power

Reputation: 2472

classpath does not default to current directory

I wrote and compiled a simple Hello World program in Java but when I tried to run it I was greeted with the error message Error: Could not find or load main class Hello. It was only after I executed the command java -cp . Hello that it successfully ran.

Oddly enough, the current directory already seems to be part of the classpath. The script 

class CheckClassPath{
    public static void main(String args[]){
        System.out.println(System.getProperty("java.class.path"));
    }
}

prints ., though I again have to explicitly set the classpath option.

Does anyone have an idea why this is happening? I am using Ubuntu 16.04 and open-JDK version 1.8.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 160

Answers (1)

Stephen C
Stephen C

Reputation: 718708

I expect that a CLASSPATH environment variable has been set. Run echo $CLASSPATH to see what it is set to.

If you don't use the -jar option then:

  • If there is a -cp, that specifies the classpath
  • Else if CLASSPATH is set in the environment, that specifies the classpath
  • Else a default classpath of "." is used.

Upvotes: 1

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