This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Norman Richards. Original Post: Rewriting the classpath at runtime Feed Title: Orb [norman richards] Feed URL: http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/java?flav=rss Feed Description: Monkey number 312,978,199 Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Norman Richards Latest Posts From Orb [norman richards]

I ran across an interesting hack to allow you to rewrite the system classpath at runtime. This is the kind of dumb pointless hack I normally would do, but I've never run into a case where I've needed to hack the system classpath like this. If you can call setAccessible() then you aren't running with any sort of security restrictions and can surely create a class loader to load the class. Class loading in Java is so simple that I can't see any reason not to do things the right way. But still, as a hack for the sake of hacking, I like it.

Judging by the comments on the posting above, some people are undoubtedly going to try to put this hack in their own code. If you are one of those people, please put your keyboard down now and report to the Ministry of Reeducation immediately. We've got some manual labor for you. (Seriously, though - don't do it)