Why do you remove .class when executing on the JVM?

Question

Example: I have some source code, FooBar.java

javac FooBar.java

that gives me FooBar.class.

Why does the JVM command line API take FooBar instead of FooBar.class (working on UNIX FYI)?

Auburn

dublicate, #8651640 #8756246 – Orazio

Answer 1

That's just a convention! Classes are loaded using their fully qualified class name. The ClassLoader then knows how to map class names to file names (e.g. by appending '.class').

Sectional

Answer 2

Just because you have to tell the JVM the name of the class you want to run, not its actual filename. Another example, if your class was myPackage/FooBar.java you would compile to myPackage/FooBar.class, though you would put myPackage.FooBar as jvm argument.

Gareth