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So I'm aware that different operating systems require different classpath separators. I'm running a build of windows where CMD has been replaced with Powershell which is causing problems when using the semi-colon separator.

The command I'm trying to run begins with cmd /c to try and get it to run in command prompt instead but I think when PowerShell is parsing the whole command it sees the semi-colon and thinks that is the end!

My whole command is:

cmd /c javac -cp PATH1;PATH2 -d DESTINATION_PATH SOURCE_PATH

I have tried using a space, colon and period to no avail. Can anybody suggest a solution?

This is my first question on stackoverflow, hope the community can help and that it will eventually help others. :)

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    -cp "PATH1;PATH2" Commented Jan 7, 2017 at 18:59

3 Answers 3

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I suggest you start the process in the following way using Powershell 

Start-Process cmd.exe -ArgumentList "/c javac -cp PATH1;PATH2 -d DESTINATION_PATH SOURCE_PATH" -NoNewWindow
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3 Comments

What do you mean by "CMD has been replaced" ? CMD is available in all Microsoft operating systems, including but not limited to the latest "Windows 10".
The machine it does not work on is using a technical preview of Windows from the Windows Insider program. I'm referring to link So CMD is around still but I believe under the hood from my java program that builds the command String[] PowerShell is being used to execute it. And my results from copy-pasting the command into CMD and PowerShell support that.
Thank you for the solution. To elaborate on PowerShell 'replacing' CMD. I was thinking that with the latest preview builds of windows the process created by java code Process pro = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(String[] cmdArray, String[] envp, File dir); was run in PowerShell not Command Prompt now. Although my initial attempts seemed to support that theory, the error was actually in a different place.
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Running javac in CMD shouldn't be required. Just put quotes around arguments that (may) contain whitespace or special characters. I'd also recommend using the call operator (&). It's optional in this case, but required if you put the executable in quotes (e.g. because the executable or path contains spaces or you want to put it in a variable).

& javac -cp "PATH1;PATH2" -d "DESTINATION_PATH" "SOURCE_PATH"

You could also use splatting for providing the arguments:

$javac  = "$env:JAVA_HOME\bin\javac.exe"
$params = '-cp', "PATH1;PATH2",
          '-d', "DESTINATION_PATH",
          "SOURCE_PATH"

& $javac @params
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Thank you for the comment regarding putting PATH1;PATH2 in double quotes. That solved the problem in part. I can call javac from CMD but I don't think I have set up properly for PowerShell to work with just javac. I'm pretty sure your splatting solution would do the trick though.
The only thing you should need for a basic setup are the environment variable JAVA_HOME (pointing to the folder where your JDK is installed) and the path to javac.exe (usually %JAVA_HOME%\bin) in your PATH environment variable. Both environment variables affect CMD and PowerShell, i.e. if you have your setup working in CMD it should also be working in PowerShell.
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javac -classpath "path1:path2:." main.java does the trick in powershell. the cmd doesn't need the doble quotes however while using powershell we need to put the quotes and it works smoothly.

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Although this answer is on the right track, the ':' will not work. It needs to be a semicolon ';'.

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