Using Ant Javac to recognize jars in jars

[Kevin Crocker]

I am trying to use Ant to compile some java files which are dependant upon classes held in a jar file. This jar file is in another jar file.
Two questions:
Can I put a jar file in a jar file?
If so, How can I get the Ant javac task to recognize the inner jar so my import statements found in my java file will not give me a compile error?
Thanks

[Thomas Paul]

Stolen from Sun's forum:
There is a line in the manifest which you can use to add JARs to the CLASSPATH. The paths are relative so the line:
Class-Path: jaxp.jar parser.jar
expects to find these JARs in the same directory as the main jar file.

[Dave Landers]

I think if you need to have a jar actually inside another jar, you are going to have to extract it manually.
Or, if you're looking for a "fun" project, you could write your own "JarInJarClassLoader"
Note that if you use the Class-Path entry in the jar manifest, there is a bug with javac(and javap) - they do not recognize it and you have to put all those jars in classpath for compiling.
The java command (jvm) does recognize manfiest Class-Path entries as it should.

[Kevin Crocker]

Am I to assume that you mean the javac (compiler) and not a bug with ANT and the javac task?

[Dave Landers]

Right.
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/bugParade/bugs/4212732.html
[ September 09, 2002: Message edited by: Dave Landers ]