This is a feature, not an error. Development projects, particularly for large systems, may want to separate source and class files in different directories. This observation doesn’t justify not checking the directory into which class files are being written, but it does move us closer to a solution.
The -d javac command-line option writes class files into the directory
specified by -d’s argument. In addition to writing the class
files, javac will also create any package directories it needs.
$ ls
classes src
$ ls src
C1.java
$ ls classes
$ cat src/C1.java
package B;
class C1 { }
$ javac -Xlint -d classes src/C1.java
$ ls classes
B
$ ls classes/B
C1.class
$
Of course, that doesn’t explain not checking if -d isn’t being used, but
at this point: enough.
This page last modified on 24 January 2006.