You have to set the environmental variable CLASSPATH somewhere. If you want it set the same for all users, then you can set it in the "/etc/profile" file (most Linux implementations use this). In Gentoo Linux there is a file called "/etc/provile.env" that holds the environmental variables and is loaded by the "/etc/profile" file on boot-up.

If you set the class path in your "/etc/profile" file and don't want to reboot, then do a "source /etc/profile" at the command line.

One you have set your basic CLASSPATH in that file, you can modify that class path in any program that you execute. Usually you are going to run a shell script to start your java programs, so you can modify it there.... like this.

    CLASSPATH="path you want":$CLASSPATH;

Or check with whatever shell script syntax you are running...

Hope this helps...

Stephen McConnell