How to add multiple jars to the classpath of groovyConole/groovysh?

Question

This feels ridiculous that I have to ask this, but I can't seem to add multiple jar files to the classpath for groovyConsole and groovysh. How do I add multiple jar files to the classpath? Here is what I've tried:

groovyConsole -cp ~/lib/compile/jar/mysql-connector-java-5.1.32.jar:~/lib/compile/jar/ojdbc6-11.2.0.3.jar

However, when I execute this code in the console I get the following:

 file:/Users/charlie/lib/compile/jar/mysql-connector-java-5.1.32.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/projects/fuseanalytics/./
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/ant-1.9.3.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/ant-antlr-1.9.3.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/ant-junit-1.9.3.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/ant-launcher-1.9.3.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/bsf-2.4.0.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/commons-cli-1.2.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/commons-logging-1.1.1.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/gpars-1.2.1.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-ant-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-bsf-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-console-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-docgenerator-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-groovydoc-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-groovysh-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-jmx-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-json-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-jsr223-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-nio-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-servlet-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-sql-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-swing-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-templates-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-test-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-testng-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/groovy-xml-2.3.6.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/hamcrest-core-1.3.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/ivy-2.3.0.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/jansi-1.11.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/jcommander-1.35.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/jline-2.11.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/jsp-api-2.0.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/jsr166y-1.7.0.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/junit-4.11.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/multiverse-core-0.7.0.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/qdox-1.12.1.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/servlet-api-2.4.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/testng-6.8.8.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/xmlpull-1.1.3.1.jar
 file:/Users/charlie/.gvm/groovy/current/lib/xstream-1.4.7.jar

Notice that the first jar file, the mysql jar file, is added to the classloader, but the second jar file, the oracle jar file, is not added. I've also tried using the -cp argument twice like:

 groovyConsole -cp ~/lib/compile/jar/mysql-connector-java-5.1.32.jar -cp ~/lib/compile/jar/ojdbc6-11.2.0.3.jar

But that just fails with an error. The docs are conspicuously devoid of any guidance other than vague hints that it works just like Java. Hence why its so frustrating the first attempt didn't work out of the box.

I've also tried to add the Jar files after starting groovyConsole using Script > Add Jar(s) to Class path menu option, but it adds none of the jar files.

So why doesn't this work in a more straight forward manner?

Answer 1

The Groovy classpath is the Java classpath, and you can include all the JARs in a directory using a wildcard (note the this is not the Unix wildcard, but a feature of Java, and you may have to enclose it in single quotes on Unix to prevent it from being expanded. To wit:

groovyConsole -cp $HOME/lib/compile/jar/* 

This took me a disturbingly long time to locate: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/tools/windows/classpath.html#A1100762