From my readings, when you execute a command as follows:

java -jar foo.jar

Then the main classpath is ignored and the classpath is taken from the manifest file.

Further, the classpath declared on the command line is also ignored. So in:

java -classpath /usr/local/jar/foobar.jar -jar foo.jar

/usr/local/jar/foobar.jar is ignored.

Lastly, I have read that the manifest file can only only contain relative paths, within the jar file.

So, how do you include absolute paths to external jars, that are present on the system, but not in the jar file being executed?