Setting Java classpath option with spaces and quotes under Windows�

Java supports two approaches for setting paths of the classes.

1. Set the commandline option classpath
2. Set the CLASSPATH environment variable

The second option is easy, but has a draw back as a common CLASSPATH is shared within all the projects and classes, which makes it harder to test different projects with different classpaths.

Classpath via commandline is preferred

So the first option is the preferred way due to the support for multiple classpaths.
It is used as;

java -classpath first.jar;second.jar TestClient

When the paths to the jar files have spaces, the commandline classpath option causes errors. Under Windows installation like 2000/NT/XP, all the users get a folder with the user name under a folder named "Documents and Settings" (which has a space). And if the jar files are under the user folder, path would look like below.
"C:/Documents and Settings/someUser/.."
which would cause the above error.

How to over come this issue

1. Put quotes and group the whole classpath

java -classpath 
        "C:/Documents and Settings/user/project/lib/axis.jar; 
         C:/Documents and Settings/user/project/lib/axis-ant.jar;" 
    TestClient

2. Put quotes on individual paths

java -classpath 
        "C:/Documents and Settings/user/project/lib/axis.jar"; 
        "C:/Documents and Settings/user/project/lib/axis-ant.jar;" 
    TestClient

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