Location of MySQL Connector jar

[Elton Hughes]

Hello All,
I am learning about Java, servlets, JavaServer Pages, JDBC, and Tomcat. Whew. Lots of info, and very interesting stuff. As a part of the learning process I downloaded the latest stable version of the MySQL JDBC driver. I am using MacOS 10.2.8. I think I should place the jar in /Library/Java/Extensions . Is this correct?
The book I am using to learn from says to install the jar in the common/lib directory of Tomcat. Should this be a separate copy or a link to the jar in /Library/Java/Extensions?
Thanks,
Elton
[ October 15, 2003: Message edited by: Elton Hughes ]

[Bear Bibeault]

I wouldn't put the jar in /Library/Java/Extensions at all. There's no need to.
bear

[Elton Hughes]

Hi Bear,
If not in /Library/Java/Extensions then where? And what is the role of the /Library/Java/Extensions directory?
Elton

[Karen Gomes]

Hi Elton,
I have never used java on a mac ... but on a PC with windows environment we treat it exactly like the jar files of j2sdk. We specify it in the classpath..
May be you can look for where the jars or classes of jdk have been specified. Guess it should be treated alike.
Karen

[Bear Bibeault]

If not in /Library/Java/Extensions then where? And what is the role of the /Library/Java/Extensions directory?

Tomcat ignores the system classpath. For use in Tomcat-served web applications, I'd put it in the shared/lib folder of your Tomcat installation.
bear

[Elton Hughes]

Tomcat ignores the system classpath. For use in Tomcat-served web applications, I'd put it in the shared/lib folder of your Tomcat installation.

Makes sense. The book I am using suggests placing it in Tomcat's common/lib directory.
But what if I want to use the jar for Tomcat and regular old jdbc? Two jar's or a link?
Elton

[Simon Brown]

Since this is turning out to be more of a Tomcat question (the difference between the various locations in which JAR files can be placed), I'm going to move it to the Tomcat forum.
Simon

[Mike Curwen]

Hi Elton,

Find a good description of the Tomcat classloaders here:

http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/class-loader-howto.html