[Classloader/executable jar] Classes visible to jasper-runtime, b ut not jasper-compiler

[Ming Zhou <mz...@tps-software.com>]

We are starting Tomcat4 as a thread within our app. If app specific jars are
set in the environment classpath, they are picked up properly.

After I made an executable jar, e.g. "java -jar myapp.jar", that includes
all the related jars in the manifest class-path, JSP pages can't be compiled
any more due to undefined app-specific classes. (I'm using executable jars
to simplify cross-platform deployment.)

Here is a snapshot to my directory structure:
/app_home (run "java -jar myapp.jar" in here)
  myapp.jar (using lib/*.jar and tomcat4/bin/bootstrap.jar in the manifest)
  /lib
    /*.jar
  /tomcat4
    /bin
      /bootstrap.jar
    /webapps
      /app1
      /app2
    /work

The interesting thing is that if I have JSP pages that had been compiled
before in the work directory, they can still be run without any problem
until I delete the classes and try reloading the pages. So it appears that
Jasper runtime can see classes referred in the executable jar, but Jasper
compiler can't.

Question #1: Can someone explain this difference to me?

Question #2: I'm aware of the classloader tree in tomcat. Since we use the
system classloader to run bootstrap, shouldn't the bootstrap classloader and
all of its descendants inherit the class-path defined in the manifest of the
executable jar?

I appreciate any insight into this issue.

-ming,


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