jaotc will exit with java.lang.ClassNotFoundException when referenced class not found regardless --ignore-errors flag.

> $JAVA_HOME/bin/jaotc --info Test.class --ignore-errors
Compiling unnamed.so...
 (27 ms)
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: ref/TestClass
at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
...
at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:495)
at jdk.aot/jdk.tools.jaotc.collect.classname.ClassNameSourceProvider.findSource(ClassNameSourceProvider.java:63)
at jdk.aot/jdk.tools.jaotc.collect.ClassSearch.findSource(ClassSearch.java:99)
at jdk.aot/jdk.tools.jaotc.collect.ClassSearch.search(ClassSearch.java:55)
at jdk.aot/jdk.tools.jaotc.Collector.collectClassesToCompile(Collector.java:64)
at jdk.aot/jdk.tools.jaotc.Main.run(Main.java:133)
at jdk.aot/jdk.tools.jaotc.Main.run(Main.java:100)
at jdk.aot/jdk.tools.jaotc.Main.main(Main.java:79)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: ref.TestClass
at java.base/java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:466)
at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:562)
at java.base/java.net.FactoryURLClassLoader.loadClass(URLClassLoader.java:890)
at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:495)
... 19 more
>

> cat Test.java
import ref.TestClass;
public class Test extends TestClass {
    public static void main(String[] args) { }
}

> cat ref/TestClass.java
package ref;
public class TestClass {
}

TestClass.class is in jar file:

> $JAVA_HOME/bin/javac Test.java
> $JAVA_HOME/bin/jar -c -f testClass.jar ref/
> rm ref/TestClass.class

> java -cp .:testClass.jar Test

Note, to avoid CNFE you need put TestClass on class path:

> $JAVA_HOME/bin/jaotc --info Test.class -J-cp -J.:testClass.jar