If the java to be used is going to be Java 6 or higher the class path can be:

set CLASSPATH=%APP_HOME%/lib/*

See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/windows/classpath.html

look at the section on wildcards.

The targetCompatibility and sourceCompatibility can be used to see if the Java is Java 6+

My 2 cents

I think a pathing jar would be a good and flexible solution that works on any jdk: See http://stackoverflow.com/a/201969/737587

I wrote a workaround. It generates such a pathing jar and applies it in the windows cmd file:

// Fix command-length issue in windows startscript
task pathingJar(type: Jar) {
    appendix = 'pathing'
    manifest { attributes("Class-Path": configurations.runtime.collect { it.getName() }.join(' ') + ' ' + jar.archiveName ) }
}
applicationDistribution.from(pathingJar) { into "lib" }
startScripts {
    doLast {
        def winScriptFile  = file getWindowsScript()
        def winFileText = winScriptFile.text

        // Remove too-long-classpath and use pathing jar instead
        winFileText = winFileText.replaceAll('set CLASSPATH=.*', 'rem CLASSPATH declaration removed.')
        winFileText = winFileText.replaceAll('("%JAVA_EXE%" .* -classpath ")%CLASSPATH%(" .*)', '$1%APP_HOME%\\\\lib\\\\' + pathingJar.archiveName + '$2')

        winScriptFile.text = winFileText
    }
}

My workaround solution for this ,( works for java 6 and above only)

startScripts
{
doLast

}

> I wrote a workaround. It generates such a pathing jar and applies it in the windows cmd file:

+1

Also +1 for the pathing jar solution - if order of jars is not important, then the wildcard is probably fine. For me order was important and so wildcard solution gave different results.

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