CLASSPATH (not)

Hi all,

I've noticed quite a few postings lately about connecting to the jdbc driver. They all seem to mention having the
CLASSPATHenvironment variable set correctly. 
In a lot of cases setting CLASSPATH is unnecessary.
Java 1.2 introduced a feature called the Extension Mechanism which basically allows you to make a package accessible by
placingits .jar file in a special Java runtime directory. 
All you need to do is copy (or link) your postgresql.jar (or your particular version of it) to the path_to_jre/lib/ext
directory;path_to_jre on my Java installation is /usr/java/jdk1.3/jre . 
To quote Sun's documentation :

> Any set of packages or classes can easily be made to play the role
> of an extension. The first step in turning a set of classes into
> an extension is to bundle them in a JAR file. Once that's done, you
> can turn the software into an extension in two ways:
>
>   * by placing the JAR file in a special location in the directory
>     structure of the Java Runtime Environment, in which case it's
>     called an installed extension.
>   * by referencing the JAR file in a specified way from the manifest
>     of the another JAR file, in which case it's called a download
>     extension.


Check out Sun's Java Tutorial page at :
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ext/index.html
or their documentation at
http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/guide/extensions/

Have Fun,

John L.