Question: In our project we use Eclipse launch configurations which are under version control to be shared with all developers. Now it is necessary to include an external archive to a launch configuration file's classpath. Fortunately the required archive is in every developer's local Maven repository.

I already found out that there is a classpath variable called *M2\_REPO* which references to the local Maven repository (being valid for any developer).

But how to use this variable in the following classpath definition to replace the absolute path?

```xml
<listAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.CLASSPATH">
    ...
    <listEntry value="&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?&gt;&lt;runtimeClasspathEntry externalArchive=&quot;C:/Dokumente und Einstellungen/050967/.m2/repository/com/google/gwt/gwt-dev/2.0.3/gwt-dev-2.0.3.jar&quot; path=&quot;3&quot; type=&quot;2&quot;/&gt;"/>
    ...
</listAttribute>

```

Or is there a way to include an environment variable (e.g. Windows' `%USERPROFILE%` could help)?

Answer: 
Edit your launch configuration.
Go to the "classpath" tab.
Focus on "User Entries".
Click the "Advanced" button.

* To add an entry based on a *classpath variable*, select *Add classpath variable* and click OK. A dialog will open. Focus on `M2_REPO` and click the "Extend" button. Select your JAR file.
* To add an entry based on a *system environment variable*, select *Add variable string*, and in the editbox below, type: `${env_var:your-environment-variable-name}/path-to-jar`. For example, if your system environment variable is `MYVAR` and the JAR file is under `subdir/myfile.jar`, you should type `${env_var:MYVAR}/subdir/myfile.jar`.
You could load that value from [maven properties](http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAVENUSER/MavenPropertiesGuide).

Maven stores repository path in `maven.repo.local` property.

Place `${maven.repo.local}` into your configuration file.

```
<listAttribute key="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.CLASSPATH">
    ...
    <listEntry value="&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?&gt;&lt;runtimeClasspathEntry externalArchive=&quot;${${maven.repo.local}}/com/google/gwt/gwt-dev/2.0.3/gwt-dev-2.0.3.jar&quot; path=&quot;3&quot; type=&quot;2&quot;/&gt;"/>
    ...
</listAttribute>

```

Then setup [filtering](http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-resources-plugin/examples/filter.html) in `pom.xml` for your configuration file so `${maven.repo.local}` will be replaced with property value.