How to load a whole directory using Class-Path: jar manifest header? [duplicate]

Question

If in the manifest for a jar file that needs to load non executable jars, I have the Class-Path: specification and then a directory holding the jars as the class path instead of a jar file. Will the manifest then load the whole directory or will it just fail?

Update: I tried to use Class-Path: foo/* however it failed to load the foo directory. Does the manifest classpath not support regex>

Answer 1

As long as your foo directory contains only .class files, you can safely set the Class-Path: header like this:

Class-Path: foo/

Since you have non executable jars in it, you should use a build tool like Maven to generate the Class-Path: entry for you. The non executable jars will be dependencies of your Maven project.

Reference:

• JAR : MANIFEST.MF Class-Path referencing a directory