Section SRV.9.7.1 of the Servlet 2.3 API specification appears to make Web containers responsible for reading a WAR file's MANIFEST.MF file to determine its dependencies on "extension" JAR files and to make them available to the Web application at runtime.
Does anyone know if Web container vendors are specifically required to support the Class-Path MANIFEST attribute for WAR files? For example, if my WAR file's MANIFEST contained the following line: Class-Path: util.jar Would the Web container be required to load that JAR so that the class files that comprise the Web application can access that JAR? If so, are Web containers additionally required to support absolute paths used within the Class-Path attribute, for example: Class-Path: E:/Common_Packages/util_1.1/util.jar Is there a more standard way by which to share JAR files amongst multiple Web applications without having to: 1) copy all of the required JAR files to the Web application's WEB-INF/lib directory, or 2) rely on some non-portable means of setting the Web application's CLASSSPATH (e.g., the "user.classpath" local.properties variable in Macromedia JRun 3.1)? While I have no personal objections to making all of the JARs upon which a Web application depends accessible from its WEB-INF/lib directory, others argue that this causes uses unnecessary disk space and prohibits centralized control and verification of upgrades of multiple Web applications to use a newer version of a JAR. Any feedback you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mike Michael V. Spoonauer FMRCo Systems Division Information Management Technology ********************************************** Phone: 617-563-2549 Pager: 800-SKY-TEL2, Pin # 1241370 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ********************************************** Fidelity Investments 68 Devonshire St., 8th Fl Boston, MA 02109-3605 ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff SERVLET-INTEREST". Archives: http://archives.java.sun.com/archives/servlet-interest.html Resources: http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/external-resources.html LISTSERV Help: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/user/user.html
