java - Why this javac: File Not Found error?

Question

Working with some basic java apps on CentOS 5 linux and I have my classpath set to point to home/pathToJava/bin which contains javac and java

and I have .java files in home/pathToFolderA/src

and home/pathToFolderB/gen-java

When I run javac and java in home/pathToFolderA/src everything works perfectly

But when I run javac from within home/pathToFolderB/gen-java on fileName.java I get a file not found error, specifically

javac: file Not found: fileName.java
Usage: javac <options> <source files>

Why could this be happening?

Thanks for all help

Answer 1

The classpath is used to find class files, not source files. (Nor is it used to find the java and javac binaries; those are found in your normal path.) You need to specify the files to compile explicitly:

javac /home/pathToFolderA/src/fileName.java

Obviously if you're already in /home/pathToFolderA/src then you can just use fileName.java because that's treated as being relative to your current directory.