java classpath

Java classpath is an environment variable that specifies the location of Java classes and other resources that are required by a Java application. It is a list of directories and JAR files that the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) searches for when loading a class.

The classpath is used to tell the JVM where to find the class files that are needed to run a Java program. Without the proper classpath, the JVM will not be able to find the required classes and will throw a ClassNotFoundException.

The classpath can be set using the -classpath or -cp command line option when running a Java program, or by setting the CLASSPATH environment variable.

The classpath can include multiple directories and JAR files, separated by a platform-specific separator (":" on Unix-based systems and ";" on Windows).

For example, to set the classpath to include a directory named "classes" and a JAR file named "mylib.jar" on Unix-based systems, you can use the following command:

java -classpath /path/to/classes:/path/to/mylib.jar MyProgram

On Windows, the command would be:

java -classpath C:\path\to\classes;C:\path\to\mylib.jar MyProgram