[FIXED] Why is Java command working with java files as parameter

Issue

I have java file HelloWorld.java with the following code:

class HelloWorld {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello, World!"); 
    }
}

Now my understanding is, to compile and run this we need two steps: Step 1)javac HelloWorld.java Step 2)java HelloWorld. So clearly the command java takes the class file name as its input parameter.

However if I do java HelloWorld.java, it prints the output of the program despite the fact that I have passed the java filename and not the class name to it. See the screenshot below.

Can someone clarify this please?

Java - openjdk version "11.0.8" 2020-07-14 LTS(AWS Corretto)

OS - Amazon Linux 2(red hat based OS)

Infra - AWS EC2 instance

Edit: Also I noticed this happens only if the corresponding classfile is not there in the directory. If the corresponding classfile is there, it takes gives the error: error: class found on application class path: HelloWorld

Solution

This was introduced in java 11.

If you have installed a JDK, you can call javac directly using the source file.

java <Class>.java

is basically the same as

javac <Class>.java
java <Class>

Answered By - dan1st
Answer Checked By - Mildred Charles (JavaFixing Admin)