System classpath

On Windows systems, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) uses the system classpath to locate libraries and other resources (such as configuration files). This classpath is used by the following SDL Tridion services:

  • Tridion Content Distributor Transport Service
  • Tridion Content Deployer
  • Tridion Cache Channel Service

Content Delivery dynamically builds this classpath, because the length of the required environment variable for the classpath exceeds the 1024 byte limit that Windows imposes on any environment variable. The classpath is generated based on the following:

  • When you start your service, the SDL Tridion Home is identified as follows:

    • If there is a registry entry for TRIDION_HOME for this specific service or for all Tridion Content Delivery Services, the value of that entry is the SDL Tridion Home.
    • If no such registry entry exists, SDL Tridion Home is set to the value of the environment variable TRIDION_HOME, which by default is set to C:\Program Files\Tridion.
  • If both the registry entry and the environment variable are not set, the parent directory of the folder in which cd_*.exe is located is identified as SDL Tridion Home, where * is transport, deployer, or cacheservice.
  • Once the SDL Tridion Home is determined, the system then adds %TRIDION_HOME%\Config to the classpath. The config directory contains the XML configuration files for the various modules (e.g. cd_transport_conf.xml and cd_licenses.xml).
  • The system iterates through the *.jar and *.zip files in the %TRIDION_HOME%\lib directory and adds them to the classpath. The system then adds the generated classpath to the system classpath.