FULL PRODUCT VERSION :


A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
If a jar containing a manifest that has a Class-path: entry is passed to javac through -cp or -classpath, javac prepends the location of that jar to each entry in the Class-path: attribute to build its class search path.

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
I created a jar file that contains the class com.test.Test. I called that jar classes.jar, and placed it in /tmp.

I then create a jar that only contains a manifest, and on said manifest I put the entry

Class-path: /tmp/classes.jar

I called this second jar classpath.jar, and I also placed it in /tmp.

Running

java -classpath /tmp/classpath.jar com.test.Test

succeeds. Running

javac -classpath /tmp/classpath.jar

doesn't. The -verbose option to javac shows me that it's looking for classes in /tmp/tmp/classes.jar. That is, it prepended the location of classpath.jar to the entry in its manifest.

I also tried using

Class-path: file:///tmp/classes.jar

In that, java still works, and javac looks for things in /tmp/file:/tmp/classes.jar


REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.