Practical Coding in Java

Learn to write and validate your own code

Darren Kessner, PhD

(revised January 9, 2026)

Previous: Appendix B: Processing Libraries

Using the Processing libraries: CLASSPATH

In order to use the Processing libraries from Java, your javac and java need to be able to find the Processing libraries (the .jar files). You can use the CLASSPATH environment variable to do this.

On Mac with Processing installed in the default location (/Applications), the command line is:

export CLASSPATH=.:/Applications/Processing.app/Contents/app/*

To set your CLASSPATH automatically when you open a new Terminal window, include that line in your .zshrc (or .bashrc) file in your home directory.


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