We have 3 apps in jar format we'll call aaa.jar, bbb.jar, and ccc.jar
and all of these use a library IN THE SAME DIRECTORY we'll call abc.jar.
aaa, bbb, ccc all have main methods and manifest similar to this:
Main-Class: aaa
Class-Path: abc.jar
If we go to this directory and then type
java -jar aaa.jar
or
java -jar bbb.jar
or
java -jar ccc.jar
each respective app will run, using methods from the library as needed.
We test this on all platforms, which for us is OS X, Linux, Solaris, and
Windows XP and it always runs just fine.
Now we have an app that is going to load these same applications via a
URL class loader and then launch them (after converthing their names to
URLs etc etc etc)
Here's the oddity:
On Solaris, Linux, and OS X, this works fine. The ULRClassLoader loads
these apps and runs them fine, but on Windows XP we MUST supply a full
classpath to the "launcher."
For example, let's say our launcher and the aaa ... ccc and libraries
are all in a directory called /Users/test/runner.
If we switch to this directory and type "java -jar launcher..jar" on OS
X, Linux, and and Solaris, the launcher app will run and
correspondingly launch aaa through ccc as needed.
Now if we do the same on Windoze, it throws an exception when the
launcher tries to load one of the apps requiring the library abc.jar. To
circumvent (correct) this, we must launch the app on Windows with a full
path passed to the launcher with the library's name in it like this:
Now the launcher will go ahead and successfully launch aaa, bbb, and
ccc. Note that if we try and take a short cut, like
java -classpath .:.\abc.jar -jar launcher.jar
the launch will not work.
My question is whether we've stumbled on some type of a fluke or not. If
you read the docs for classpaths, it implies to me that the FULL
classpath setting (like the way it's done in Windows) is the correct
way, and yet 3 OSes (OS X, Linux, Solaris) seem to be able to reference
the jarred library with respect to their own jar files.
A long time ago I did some work on VMS systems (the Father of Windoze)
and I seem to remember at the time the same sort of absolute referencing
of names, and I also remember way back then how dumb I thought it was
that the operating system couldn't handle relative references. Is this
what we're seeing here?
Thanks as Usual!!
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