I have run into the problem where I am looking for the right jar file from a production environment and bring it to a development environment. The problem is that when I get the ClassNotFoundException or the “I can’t find this class” error from the compiler, the right jar file does not come out and say, “Include me in your classpath!” To solve that problem I created an application to do it. It searches recursively through directories and finds all the jar files. Once it finds a jar file, the jar file is opened and a regex search is done to the names to find the missing resource. If the resource is found, the jar file that contains the resource is returned. Otherwise, null is printed on the screen. Below is the class file:

public class JarsSearch {

public static final String FILE_PARAM = “–file”;

public static final String ROOT_PARAM = “–root”;

public static final String HELP_PARAM_PATTERN = “-? | –help”;

public static final String DEFAULT_ROOT = “.”;

private String filename;

private String rootpath = DEFAULT_ROOT;

public JarsSearch() {}

public JarsSearch(String root, String filename) {

setRootpath(root);

setFilename(filename);

}

/**

* @return the filename

*/

public String getFilename() {

return filename;

}

/**

* @param filename the filename to set

*/

public void setFilename(String filename) {

this.filename = filename;

}

/**

* @return the rootpath

*/

public String getRootpath() {

return rootpath;

}

/**

* @param rootpath the rootpath to set

*/

public void setRootpath(String rootpath) {

this.rootpath = rootpath;

}

/**

* looks for the file on any jar under the rootpath

*

* @return String the path of the containing jar file

*/

public String find() {

String jarFilename = null;

try {

File[] jarsNdirs = new File(getRootpath()).listFiles(new JarFileFilter());

Arrays.sort(jarsNdirs, new ListingComparator());

for (File f: jarsNdirs) {

if (f.isDirectory()) {

JarsSearch js = new JarsSearch(f.getCanonicalPath(), getFilename());

jarFilename = js.find();

if (Utils.isStringValid(jarFilename)) {

break;

}

} else { // if not a directory, then a jar file

JarEntry entry;

Pattern p = Pattern.compile(getFilename());

Matcher m = null;

JarFile jarFile = new JarFile(f, false, JarFile.OPEN_READ);

Enumeration e = jarFile.entries();

while (e.hasMoreElements()) {

entry = e.nextElement();

//System.out.println(“printing entry name: ” + entry.getName());

m = p.matcher(entry.getName());

if (m.matches()) {

jarFilename = f.getCanonicalPath();

}

}

jarFile.close();

}

}

} catch (Exception e) {

e.printStackTrace();

}

return jarFilename;

}

public String toString() {

return “JarsSearch[ filename pattern – “ + getFilename() + “, root path – “ + getRootpath() + ” ]”;

}

/**

* @param args

*/

public static void main(String[] args) {

String filepattern = null;

String rootdir = null;

for(int i = 0; i < args.length; i++) {

if (args[i].matches(HELP_PARAM_PATTERN)) {

showArgs();

} else if (args[i].matches(FILE_PARAM)) {

if ((i + 1) < args.length) {

filepattern = args[i + 1];

i++;

continue;

}

} else if (args[i].matches(ROOT_PARAM)) {

if ((i + 1) < args.length) {

rootdir = args[i + 1];

i++;

continue;

}

} else {

showArgs();

}

}

JarsSearch js = new JarsSearch();

if (!Utils.isStringValid(filepattern) || ROOT_PARAM.equals(filepattern)) {

showArgs();

} else {

js.setFilename(filepattern.trim());

}

if (Utils.isStringValid(rootdir) && !FILE_PARAM.equals(rootdir)) {

js.setRootpath(rootdir.trim());

}

System.out.println(js.find());

System.exit(0);

}

protected static void showArgs() {

System.out.println(“–help: this listing”);

System.out.println(“-? : this listing”);

System.out.println(ROOT_PARAM + “: where to start looking from. Default = ‘.'”);

System.out.println(FILE_PARAM + “: regex pattern of a file to look for in a jar file”);

System.exit(0);

}

}

class JarFileFilter implements java.io.FileFilter {

public boolean accept(File arg0) {

String name = arg0.getName();

return ( arg0.canRead() && ( arg0.isDirectory() || name.endsWith(“jar”) ) );

}

}

class ListingComparator implements java.util.Comparator {

public int compare(File arg0, File arg1) {

if (arg0.isDirectory() && !arg1.isDirectory()) {

return -1;

} else if (!arg0.isDirectory() && arg1.isDirectory()) {

return 1;

} else { // ( (arg0.isDirectory() && arg1.isDirectory()) || (arg0.isFile() && arg1.isFile()) )

return arg0.compareTo(arg1);

}

}

}

To get a complete copy of all the source code found on this post, go to https://github.com/darylmathison/jar-search-example.