java - What is endorseddirs and how it is used in a application?

Question

In respect to the maven-compiler-plugin. There is a setting added to my project's POM file. The configuration is given below.

<plugins>
    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.2</version>
        <configuration>
            <source>1.6</source>
            <target>1.6</target>
            <compilerArguments>
                <endorseddirs>${endorsed.dir}</endorseddirs>
            </compilerArguments>
        </configuration>
    </plugin>
</plugins>

What does it mean to have a <endorseddirs> in the compiler arguments? How does it works with java compiler?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4908773/what-is-endorseddirs-and-how-it-is-used-in-a-application

Answer 1

From the documentation of Endorsed Standards Override Mechanism, it is a mechanism to provide newer versions of an endorsed standard than those included in the Java 2 Platform

Your project must be creating and/or using such an implementation.

By specifying <endorseddirs> attribute, you are instructing the java compiler to look at jars present in this folder to override similarly defined classes in the standard jdk.