When does Java Read Values of Classpath Environment Variable?

Java uses the CLASSPATH environment variable to read the classes and libraries from file system. This variable is used by all JDK Tools and Extension including Java Compiler (javac) and JRE(java) use this variable to locate the dependent user classes and jar files to perform specific tasks.

Java Compiler uses it to locate the dependent user classes and jar files to compile Java source files.

Java Run-time Environment (JRE) uses the classpath variable to identify the location of files to be loaded for the run-time dependencies (e.g. classes and jar files) of java program.