> >Can we use $CLASSPATH instead of -classpath? From my experience making > >packages work with both free and proprietary JVMs, setting $CLASSPATH > >before calling the java runtime (instead of passing -classpath, -cp, > >whatever) has caused the least breakage. > > With some clear idea about *what* you are actually calling, this > shouldn't be a problem.
I'm really not sure what you mean here. At the moment, using $CLASSPATH is somewhat *more* portable across different JVMs than using -classpath. In particular, it doesn't suffer from the ever-changing command-line syntax, nor does it override the bootstrap classpath. > I don't like CLASSPATH, as you have to make > sure, that it is properly set up and not just gotten from "outside". Then why push for $JAVA_HOME, which suffers from the same problem? Btw, what you describe is actually not a problem at all. If you want your own specific classpath, in the script you put: export CLASSPATH="my/path.jar" # Clobbers existing classpath and if you want users to be able to extend your classpath: export CLASSPATH="my/path.jar:$CLASSPATH" # Extends existing classpath Nothing dangerous here at all. Ben.
