Filesystems and the Java Classpath

To develop applications in the IDE, you need to determine the you want to work with and them in the IDE. Mounted filesystems can be viewed on the Filesystems tab in the Explorer.

If your applications depend on other libraries, these libraries also need to be mounted if you want to run the application in the IDE. If you do not need to actively work with a given filesystem, you can set it to be hidden.

For Java applications, the IDE builds the classpath from mounted directories and JAR files. Even if you have the CLASSPATH environment variable set on your system, it is not referenced by the IDE, so you need to mount every library that your application needs. Since the mounted filesystems correspond to the classpath, any directories you mount must be mounted at the package root in order for the sources to be compilable and otherwise usable in the IDE.

By default, the sampledir directory, which holds some code examples, is mounted and displayed in the Explorer. Several JAR files are also mounted but hidden from display.

You can configure each mounted filesystem separately, determining whether the filesystem is hidden or displayed in the Explorer, whether it is writable, and what files to back up (by extension).

You can also configure whether a filesystem's files can be compiled, run, debugged, or used as Javadoc documentation in the IDE. For example, if you mount a library to browse its sources but you do not want it to be recompiled every time you compile an application that is dependent on the library, you can disable compilation for that filesystem.

The order of filesystems under the Filesystems tab is also significant. If files with the same name and package exist in two different mounted directories, the first is loaded during execution or debugging, even if you have selected the second one.

See also
Mounting a Filesystem
Changing the Mount Order of Filesystems
Opening a File not in a Mounted Filesystem
Disabling Compilation for a Filesystem
Unmounting a Filesystem
Configuring a Mounted Filesystem
Using Version Control in the IDE

Legal Notices