external directive in Bundle-Classpath

[vishalj]

does external directive load the jar in the bundles classpath
Like if two bundle have externals to same jar will they load them seperately

[Andy Wilkinson]

I wouldn't recommend using external: in Bundle-Classpath. It's Equinox-specific and therefore isn't governed by the OSGi standard. There's no guarantee that it'll work in dm Server or that, if it works now, that it will continue to work in the future. Also, as the jar file is outside of a bundle, it's excluded from OSGi's lifecycle management. If anyone changed, moved, or deleted the jar file, you get all sorts of unexpected and unpleasant problems.

Now, to answer your question. The contents of the Jar will be loaded multiple times: once for each bundle which references it, using the bundle's classloader. I really wouldn't recommend using it though!

[shawn.chain]

I wouldn't recommend using external: in Bundle-Classpath. It's Equinox-specific and therefore isn't governed by the OSGi standard. There's no guarantee that it'll work in dm Server or that, if it works now, that it will continue to work in the future. Also, as the jar file is outside of a bundle, it's excluded from OSGi's lifecycle management. If anyone changed, moved, or deleted the jar file, you get all sorts of unexpected and unpleasant problems.

Now, to answer your question. The contents of the Jar will be loaded multiple times: once for each bundle which references it, using the bundle's classloader. I really wouldn't recommend using it though!

We're also facing the same problem.

We'll integrate some existing legacy and complex library into our own OSGi powered project. This is the fastest and easiest way to us.