javac options in Java

By: Daniel Malcolm in Java Tutorials on 2007-10-14

The compiler has a set of standard options that are supported on the current development environment and will be supported in future releases. An additional set of non-standard options are specific to the current virtual machine and compiler implementations and are subject to change in the future. Non-standard options begin with -X.

  
    -Akey[=value]
    
Options to pass to annotation processors. These are not interpreted by
      javac directly, but are made available for use by individual processors. key
      should be one or more identifiers separated by ".".
    
-cp path or -classpath path
    
Specify where to find user class files, and (optionally) annotation
      processors and source files. This classpath overrides the user class path
      in the CLASSPATH environment variable. If neither CLASSPATH,
      -cp nor -classpath is specified, the user class path
      consists of the current directory.
      If the -sourcepath option is not specified, the user class path
      is also searched for source files.
      If the -processorpath option is not specified, the classpath is
      also searched for annotation processors.

      As a special convenience, a class path element containing a basename of
      * is considered equivalent to specifying a list of all the
      files in the directory with the extension .jar or .JAR.

      

      For example, if directory foo contains a.jar and
      b.JAR, then the class path element foo/* is
      expanded to A.jar;b.JAR, except that the order of jar files
      is unspecified. All jar files in the specified directory, even hidden
      ones, are included in the list. A classpath entry consisting simply of *
      expands to a list of all the jar files in the current directory. The CLASSPATH
      environment variable, where defined, will be similarly expanded. Note:
        Depending of the configuration of your command line environment,
      you may have to quote the wild card character, for example, javac
      -cp "*.jar" MyClass.java.
    
-Djava.ext.dirs=directories
    
Override the location of installed extensions.
    
-Djava.endorsed.dirs=directories
    
Override the location of endorsed standards path.
    
-d directory
    
Set the destination directory for class files. The directory must
      already exist; javac will not create it. If a class is part of a
      package, javac puts the class file in a subdirectory reflecting the
      package name, creating directories as needed. For example, if you specify -d
      C:\myclasses and the class is called com.mypackage.MyClass,
      then the class file is called C:\myclasses\com\mypackage\MyClass.class.
      If -d is not specified, javac puts each class files in
      the same directory as the source file from which it was generated.
      Note:   The directory specified by -d is not
      automatically added to your user class path.
    
-deprecation
    
Show a description of each use or override of a deprecated member or
      class. Without -deprecation, javac shows a summary of the
      source files that use or override deprecated members or classes. -deprecation
      is shorthand for -Xlint:deprecation.
    
-encoding encoding
    
Set the source file encoding name, such as EUC-JP and UTF-8.
      If -encoding is not specified, the platform default converter is
      used.
    
-g
    
Generate all debugging information, including local variables. By
      default, only line number and source file information is generated.
    
-g:none
    
Do not generate any debugging information.
    
-g:{keyword list}
    
Generate only some kinds of debugging information, specified by a comma
      separated list of keywords. Valid keywords are:
      
        source
        
Source file debugging information
        
lines
        
Line number debugging information
        
vars
        
Local variable debugging information
      
    
-help
    
Print a synopsis of standard options.
    
-implicit:{class,none}
    
Controls the generation of class files for implicitly loaded source
      files. To automatically generate class files, use -implicit:class.
      To suppress class file generation, use -implicit:none. If this
      option is not specified, the default is to automatically generate class
      files. In this case, the compiler will issue a warning if any such class
      files are generated when also doing annotation processing. The warning
      will not be issued if this option is set explicitly.
    
-nowarn
    
Disable warning messages. This has the same meaning as -Xlint:none.
    
-proc: {none,only}
    
Controls whether annotation processing and/or compilation is done. -proc:none
      means that compilation takes place without annotation processing. -proc:only
      means that only annotation processing is done, without any subsequent
      compilation.
    
-processor class1[,class2,class3...]
    
Names of the annotation processors to run. This bypasses the default
      discovery process.
    
-processorpath path
    
Specify where to find annotation processors; if this option is not used,
      the classpath will be searched for processors.
    
-s dir
    
Specify the directory where to place generated source files. The
      directory must already exist; javac will not create it. If a class
      is part of a package, the compiler puts the source file in a subdirectory
      reflecting the package name, creating directories as needed. For example,
      if you specify -s C:\mysrc and the class is called com.mypackage.MyClass,
      then the source file will be placed in C:\mysrc\com\mypackage\MyClass.java.
    
-source release
    
Specifies the version of source b accepted. The following values for release
      are allowed:
      
        1.3
        
The compiler does not support assertions, generics, or other
          language features introduced after JDK 1.3.
        
1.4
        
The compiler accepts b containing assertions, which were
          introduced in JDK 1.4.
        
1.5
        
The compiler accepts b containing generics and other language
          features introduced in JDK 5.
        
5
        
Synonym for 1.5.
        
1.6
        
This is the default value. No language changes were introduced in
          Java SE 6. However, encoding errors in source files are now reported
          as errors, instead of warnings, as previously.
        
6
        
Synonym for 1.6.
      
      
    
-sourcepath sourcepath
    
Specify the source b path to search for class or interface
      definitions. As with the user class path, source path entries are
      separated by semicolons (;) and can be directories, JAR archives,
      or ZIP archives. If packages are used, the local path name within the
      directory or archive must reflect the package name.
      Note:   Classes found through the classpath may be subject
      to automatic recompilation if their sources are also found. See Searching
      For Types.
    
-verbose
    
Verbose output. This includes information about each class loaded and
      each source file compiled.
    
-X
    
Display information about non-standard options and exit.