The following example shows how to compile and run Java program in command line mode with external jars. It is developed under Linux.

1. Compile & Run Java Program Without External Jar

Let's create a simple hello world program "helloworld.java".

public class helloworld{

public static void main(String[] args){

System.out.println("Hello!");

}

}

Compile & Run

$ javac helloworld.java

$ java helloworld

Output

Hello!

2. Compile & Run Java Program With External Jar

Now let's download a third-party library and use some method from the library. In this case, I downloaded apache.commons.lang from here, and use the StringUtils.capitalize() method. The jar file is downloaded to "jars" directory which is located the same with helloworld.java.

import org.apache.commons.lang3.*;

public class helloworld{

public static void main(String[] args){

String x = "abcd";

System.out.println(StringUtils.capitalize(x));

}

}

Compile & Run

$ javac -cp ".:./jars/common.jar" helloworld.java

$ java -cp ".:./jars/common.jar" helloworld

Output:

Abcd

For Windows, ":" should be replaced with ";".