Changing java.ext.dirs property

Question

Hi,
I am having trouble with the system property java.ext.dirs. I want to change its location. The name suggests (dirs) that it will accept multiple directories. The reason I want multiple directories is to be able to use the jars in the default location as well. But it doesn't work and gives the following error:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: somepath/some_application
     at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass0(Native Method)
     at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
     at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
     at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
     at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(Unknown Source)
     at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
     at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
     at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
     at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
     at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
     at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Unknown Source)
     at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(Unknown Source)
     at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(Unknown Source)
     at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(Unknown Source)
     at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Is there any way I could add another directory instead of replacing the default one.
Also, I have to manually create a directory if I want lib/ext to point at another location. Is there any way to tell jre to create the directory if it doesn't already exist.
Thanks.
-jas

Answer 1

Hi There,
Linux Red Hat 5 EL
JVM 1.5
Anyone knows of an optional to define environment variable to override / append to the ext path? I'm asking because I have an installation that include a whole bundle of 3rd party jar's. I would like to have this available to all components of the system without me having to add the "-D" flag to each JVM launched.
I already have a script that defines JAVA_HOME and alike on system startup using /etc/profile.d and I would like to add to that my custom ext definition, something like export JAVA_EXT_PATH="/opt/MyProduct/java-ext"
Reference article : http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2005/04/26/extending.html
Thank you,
Maxim.
// I know this is a historical post, but perhaps some one found a solution