classpath – running a java program from the command line

My code compiled fine with the following command:

javac -cp "../lib/*" AvroReader.java

(lib is where i put my jar files)

At run time I get a ClassNotFoundException on the following line:

DatumReader<?> dtmrdr = new GenericDatumReader();

It says it can’t find org.apache.avro.generic.GenericDatumReader even though I’ve imported it.

Why is this happening?

Answer

Importing has nothing to do with loading classes or setting CLASSPATH.

Try this:

java -cp .;../lib/* Generator

Using the dot '.' as the first entry in the CLASSPATH assumes that the Generator.class file exists in the directory from which you’re running java, and /lib is one level up from that directory. Adjust as needed if both of these are not correct.