Where is Java CLASSPATH in OSX?

Question

I have this file in my Home Directory on OSX:

public class TestClass {
    public static void main(String[] args){
        System.out.println("Hello World");
    }
}

and in Bash I am running:

Korays-MacBook-Pro:~ koraytugay$ javac TestClass.java
Korays-MacBook-Pro:~ koraytugay$ java TestClass
Hello World

But I am wondering how the virtual machine instance running loads System from the CLASSPATH as my CLASSPATH environmental variable has no values:

Korays-MacBook-Pro:~ koraytugay$ echo $CLASSPATH

Well it returns an empty row. Nothing. When echo $PATH I will see:

Korays-MacBook-Pro:~ koraytugay$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

And java itself is in:

Korays-MacBook-Pro:~ koraytugay$ whereis java
/usr/bin/java

So in Windows java will look for the directories of CLASSPATH as far as I know. How does it work in OSX? How can Java load classes without the CLASSPATH variable?

hugh · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-02 10:06:23Z

1

In addition to the classpath, the bootstrap classloader loads the core libraries from /jre/lib and /jre/lib/ext (link).

You can check the classpath at runtime like this:

System.out.println(System.getProperty("java.class.path"));

answered May 2, 2015 at 10:06

hugh

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