how to compile all java source code in command line?

[Nancy Zhang]

I've unzipped JDK source code src.zip to .\jdk\src\, but how to compile them in dos command and generate class files in a specified dir, say .\test\?
Thanks.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Well, under plain old CMD.EXE it'd be hard, as there's no way that I know of to specify "all the *.java files" at the command line. If you've got Cygwin, or can do this on a UNIX system instead, then "find" is your friend:

% cd src
% javac -d ./test `find . -name '*.java'`

Now, I'm sure that won't complete without errors: there are likely dependencies on other code for which the source isn't provided. So you may need to use the -classpath switch to include one or more of the JAR files included in the JDK distribution.
[ February 21, 2005: Message edited by: Ernest Friedman-Hill ]