java - How do I auto load a database jar in Groovy without using the -cp switch?

Question

I want to simplify my execution of a Groovy script that makes calls to an Oracle database. How do I add the ojdbc jar to the default classpath so that I can run:

groovy RunScript.groovy

instead of:

groovy -cp ojdbc5.jar RunScript.groovy

Answer 1

Summarized from Groovy Recipes, by Scott Davis, Automatically Including JARs in the ./groovy/lib Directory:

1. Create .groovy/lib in your login directory

2. Uncomment the following line in ${GROOVY_HOME}/conf/groovy-starter.conf

   load !{user.home}/.groovy/lib/*.jar

3. Copy the jars you want included to .groovy/lib

It appears that for Groovy 1.5 or later you get this by default (no need to edit the conf), just drop the jars in the /lib dir.