why Java build path in Eclipse when the Jar files are available in Lib folder

[Raghavendra Peddabudi]

ECLIPSE : why the Java Build path in Eclipse when the Jar files are available in Lib folder

[Peter Johnson]

The Java Build path is used by Eclipse to track all of the JARs you need to compile and run. Just because you place JARs in a lib directory doesn't automatically mean that you want to use all of them. And not everyone uses lib directories (none of my projects have one). If you have multiple projects, each using a similar set of JARs, you will soon start looking for alternatives to the lib directory also.

[Tim Holloway]

Welcome to the JavaRanch, Raghavendra!

Like Peter, most of my projects don't have a lib folder either - they're built using Maven which has its own concept of where things should be located.

Eclipse makes no assumptions on the directory structure of a project and what goes where. This is good, since I've had a lot of trouble in the past with IDEs that weren't as flexible that way.