Class.forName() lookup places for the driver

Question

I'm trying to use java with mysql through mysql-connector-java all of them installed in Linux Debian Lenny, I've already read all the docs related to each of them, and they are workling except for one thing, It seems that jdk can't find the CLASSPATH value, so If I want to use the jar file of mysql-connector I have to do it like:
java -cp /connector myprogramSo, my question is: In linux OS, where - I mean in what file(s)- do jdk search the definition of CLASSPATH var?
At this time I've already set the CLASSPATH in .bashrc (from my HOME directory) and in /etc/profile and in both case jdk can't find it.
Regards

Answer 1

Yes you will always need to add your jar dependencies to your classpath. That's true of any jar files, not just database drivers.
Let's suppose your driver is named "mysql-connector-java-bin.jar"
When I worked in the command line mode on Linux, to compile programs I made use of the command line argument files ... described here...
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/solaris/javac.html#commandlineargfile
Then when I wanted to run a program, I wrote a bash script that contained all the classpath information
-- begin script --
#!/bin/bash
# Run myprogram
java -cp {directory of jar file}/my-connector-java-bin.jar myprogram
-- end script --
then save the file as Runit.sh or something. Then in command line you can just call bash Runit.sh without typing out the full directory path of the database jar each time you run your application.
The value for {directory of jar file} must either be an absolute value from the root of the filesystem or relative to the current working directory. If it's relative to the current working directory use "./" as the prefix.
In general, it's best not to rely on system settings, like /etc/profile entries, for your classpath.