"javac -sourcepath" - Specifying Source Path

Java Tools Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟"javac -sourcepath" - Specifying Source Path

This section provides a tutorial example on how to use the '-sourcepath' option to specify the class path for the 'javac' tool to load any source files required during the compilation.

If you use a new type, and you don't have the class definition of that type, but you have its source definition, you can use the "-sourcepath sourcepath" option to tell compiler to get that source definition. The compiler will compile that source definition into class definition.

I used the same source files, Echoer.java and EchoerTest.java, to test the compiler "-sourcepath" option:

herong> del Echoer.class
herong> del EchoerTest.class

herong> javac -verbose -sourcepath . EchoerTest.java

[parsing started SimpleFileObject[C:\herong\EchoerTest.java]]

[parsing completed 15ms]
[loading /modules/javafx.fxml/module-info.class]
[loading /modules/java.activation/module-info.class]
[loading /modules/jdk.zipfs/module-info.class]
...

[search path for source files: .]
[search path for class files: C:\Progra~1\java\jdk-12.0.1\lib\modules,.]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/lang/Object.class]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/lang/String.class]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/lang/Deprecated.class]
...
[checking EchoerTest]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/io/Serializable.class]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/lang/AutoCloseable.class]

[loading .\Echoer.java]
[parsing started DirectoryFileObject[.:Echoer.java]]
[parsing completed 15ms]

[loading /modules/java.base/java/lang/System.class]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/io/PrintStream.class]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/lang/Appendable.class]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/io/Closeable.class]
,,,
[wrote SimpleFileObject[C:\herong\EchoerTest.class]]

[checking Echoer]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/lang/StringBuilder.class]
[loading /modules/java.base/java/lang/StringBuffer.class]

[wrote DirectoryFileObject[.:Echoer.class]]
[total 360ms]

herong> java EchoerTest
!dlrow olleH

Note that:

I used "-sourcepath ." to specify the current directory as the source path for the compiler to search for the source definition of "Echoer".
The compiler loaded .\Echoer.java correctly, when Echoer definition was needed.
The compiler finished EchoerTest compilation first, then continued to compile Echoer.java.