Using javac and XP

Question

Hello,
I am using Windows XP Home Edition and j2sdk1.4.1_01.
I am getting the following error message upon trying to use javac from the command prompt:
'javac' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Below is my output upon trying to use javac. I have also provided my current path. Also, as you can see javac.exe is present in the bin directory.
How do I enable javac from any directory? The instruction Sun provides doesn't seem to work for XP!
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings>path
PATH=C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin
C:\Documents and Settings\>javac
'javac' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\Documents and Settings\>java
Usage: java [-options] class [args...]
(to execute a class)
or java -jar [-options] jarfile [args...]
(to execute a jar file)
where options include:
-cp -classpath <directories and zip/jar files separated by ;>
set search path for application classes and resources
-D<name>=<value>
set a system property
-verbose[:class|gc|jni]
enable verbose output
-version print product version and exit
-showversion print product version and continue
-? -help print this help message
-X print help on non-standard options
Here is my <C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin> directory below. As you can see javac.exe is present in the bin directory:
C:\Documents and Settings>cd ../j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin
C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin>dir
Volume in drive C is IBM_PRELOAD
Volume Serial Number is 6C67-7C74
Directory of C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin
01/16/2003 03:21 PM <DIR> .
01/16/2003 03:21 PM <DIR> ..
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,794 appletviewer.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,792 extcheck.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 16,384 HtmlConverter.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,794 idlj.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,775 jar.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,796 jarsigner.exe
01/16/2003 03:21 PM <DIR> java
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 24,672 java.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,789 javac.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,795 javadoc.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,789 javah.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,785 javap.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 24,674 javaw.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,798 jdb.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,792 keytool.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,788 kinit.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,788 klist.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,786 ktab.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,806 native2ascii.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,811 orbd.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,798 policytool.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,780 rmic.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,786 rmid.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,798 rmiregistry.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,797 serialver.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,823 servertool.exe
09/30/2002 02:08 AM 28,813 tnameserv.exe
26 File(s) 728,003 bytes
3 Dir(s) 21,616,312,320 bytes free
C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin>
As you can see javac.exe is present in the bin directory. How do I enable javac from any directory? The instruction Sun provides doesn't seem to work for XP!
Thanks, Harvey

Answer 1

These 2 tests have different errors, and therefore have different solutions.
I either get:
C:\Documents and Settings\SHEILA.IBM-IDIYAYPGDZV>cd
../../j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin\java
c hello.java
The system cannot find the path specified., The error message indicates that MSDOS can not find ../../j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin\javac. Perhaps this is just a typo in your post, but ../../ won't work in MSDOS, at least on my machine. It has to be ..\..\ but when I try the same command adapted for my system and correct the /, it works. (By 'works' I mean the javac.exe is found.)
C:\Documents and Settings\Walt>..\..\j2sdk1.4.0\bin\javac
or
C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin>javac hello.java
error: cannot read: hello.java
1 error
when everything is C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin.In this case, MSDOS found the javac.exe file and executed it. The error message is from the javac compiler and it means the compiler looked in C:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\bin and could not find a file named hello.java. Use the command "dir" and make sure that the file hello.java exists in this directory - especially make sure that the file is not named hello.java.txt
Going back over your posts, it appears that you have set your Path correctly, so perhaps the "cannot read:" error was the main problem.