Find where java class is loaded from

Question

Does anyone know how to programmaticly find out where the java classloader actually loads the class from?

I often work on large projects where the classpath gets very long and manual searching is not really an option. I recently had a problem where the classloader was loading an incorrect version of a class because it was on the classpath in two different places.

So how can I get the classloader to tell me where on disk the actual class file is coming from?

Edit: What about if the classloader actually fails to load the class due to a version mismatch (or something else), is there anyway we could find out what file its trying to read before it reads it?

Answer 1

Here's an example:

package foo;

public class Test
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        ClassLoader loader = Test.class.getClassLoader();
        System.out.println(loader.getResource("foo/Test.class"));
    }
}

This printed out:

file:/C:/Users/Jon/Test/foo/Test.class

Answer 2

Jon's version fails when the object's ClassLoader is registered as null which seems to imply that it was loaded by the Boot ClassLoader.

This method deals with that issue:

public static String whereFrom(Object o) {
  if ( o == null ) {
    return null;
  }
  Class<?> c = o.getClass();
  ClassLoader loader = c.getClassLoader();
  if ( loader == null ) {
    // Try the bootstrap classloader - obtained from the ultimate parent of the System Class Loader.
    loader = ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader();
    while ( loader != null && loader.getParent() != null ) {
      loader = loader.getParent();
    }
  }
  if (loader != null) {
    String name = c.getCanonicalName();
    URL resource = loader.getResource(name.replace(".", "/") + ".class");
    if ( resource != null ) {
      return resource.toString();
    }
  }
  return "Unknown";
}

Answer 3

This approach works for both files and jars:

Class clazz = Class.forName(nameOfClassYouWant);

URL resourceUrl = clazz.getResource("/" + clazz.getCanonicalName().replace(".", "/") + ".class");
InputStream classStream = resourceUrl.openStream(); // load the bytecode, if you wish

Answer 4

Assuming that you're working with a class named MyClass, the following should work:

MyClass.class.getClassLoader();

Whether or not you can get the on-disk location of the .class file is dependent on the classloader itself. For example, if you're using something like BCEL, a certain class may not even have an on-disk representation.