java.lang.ClassNotFoundException loading JDBC driver

Hi,

Ik know this is a FAQ, but this looks different.

While loading the pgsql jdbc driver (using Class.forName() as the
documentation suggests) I get a ClassNotFoundException:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassNotFoundException:
org.postgresql.Driver

even though the JAR file _is_ on my classpath. I've tried both the
CLASSPATH environment variable, and the -cp command line argument. The
test app I use is extremely bare bones, uses nothing beyond JDBC, and only
tries to load the driver and establish a connection.

If I try to execute the class org.postgresql.Driver directly, with the
same classpath specification, the class is found, and I get (as expected)
an error message saying the class has no main method. This suggests that
my classpath is okay.

If I move the JAR file into the JVM's lib/ext directory, things work
perfectly. I need to be able to use the driver without doing that,
however. What am I doing wrong?

I'm using the pg73jdbc3.jar from jdbc.postgresql.org, downloaded today.
My JVM is j2sdk1.4.1_01 from Sun, on Red Hat Linux 8.0

I also tried the 7.2, 7.1 and 7.0 drivers, and JVM jdk1.3.1_06 from Sun.
(I used pg73jdbc2.jar instead of pg73jdbc3.jar there)

My test app is very simple:

import java.sql.*;

public class TestApp
{
public static void main( String argv[] ) throws
java.sql.SQLException, java.lang.ClassNotFoundException
{
Class.forName( "org.postgresql.Driver" );
String url = "jdbc:postgresql://dbhost:5432/test";
Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection( url, "test", "xxxxxxxx" );
}
}

Ernst Jan