Question

I’m looking to create a package called “blue” under the default directory.
So, the package declaration is

package blue;

at the very top of my source code. When I compile the file with

javac This.java 

at command prompt, it totally ignores my package declaration
and stores the class files in the default directory. It does this
regardless of whether directory “blue” is there under the default directory.

But when I compile with

javac -d . This.java

it is doing what it is supposed to do– creating the package directory “blue”
under default and storing the class files there. What am I missing ?

Appreciate the help in advance.

Answer 1

From man javac:

  -d directory
            Set the destination directory for class files. The destination
            directory must already exist; javac will not create the desti‐
            nation directory. 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
            /home/myclasses and the class is called com.mypackage.MyClass,
            then the  class  file  is  called  /home/myclasses/com/mypack‐
            age/MyClass.class.

         If  -d  is  not  specified, javac puts the class file in the same
         directory as the source file.

         Note:   The directory specified by -d is not automatically  added
         to your user class path.