How do I create a parent-last / child-first ClassLoader in Java, or How to override an old Xerces version that was already loaded in the parent CL?

Today is your lucky day, as I had to solve this exact problem. I warn you though, the innards of class loading are a scary place. Doing this makes me think that the designers of Java never imagined that you might want to have a parent-last classloader.

To use just supply a list of URLs containing classes or jars to be available in the child classloader.

/**
 * A parent-last classloader that will try the child classloader first and then the parent.
 * This takes a fair bit of doing because java really prefers parent-first.
 * 
 * For those not familiar with class loading trickery, be wary
 */
private static class ParentLastURLClassLoader extends ClassLoader 
{
    private ChildURLClassLoader childClassLoader;

    /**
     * This class allows me to call findClass on a classloader
     */
    private static class FindClassClassLoader extends ClassLoader
    {
        public FindClassClassLoader(ClassLoader parent)
        {
            super(parent);
        }

        @Override
        public Class<?> findClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException
        {
            return super.findClass(name);
        }
    }

    /**
     * This class delegates (child then parent) for the findClass method for a URLClassLoader.
     * We need this because findClass is protected in URLClassLoader
     */
    private static class ChildURLClassLoader extends URLClassLoader
    {
        private FindClassClassLoader realParent;

        public ChildURLClassLoader( URL[] urls, FindClassClassLoader realParent )
        {
            super(urls, null);

            this.realParent = realParent;
        }

        @Override
        public Class<?> findClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException
        {
            try
            {
                // first try to use the URLClassLoader findClass
                return super.findClass(name);
            }
            catch( ClassNotFoundException e )
            {
                // if that fails, we ask our real parent classloader to load the class (we give up)
                return realParent.loadClass(name);
            }
        }
    }

    public ParentLastURLClassLoader(List<URL> classpath)
    {
        super(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());

        URL[] urls = classpath.toArray(new URL[classpath.size()]);

        childClassLoader = new ChildURLClassLoader( urls, new FindClassClassLoader(this.getParent()) );
    }

    @Override
    protected synchronized Class<?> loadClass(String name, boolean resolve) throws ClassNotFoundException
    {
        try
        {
            // first we try to find a class inside the child classloader
            return childClassLoader.findClass(name);
        }
        catch( ClassNotFoundException e )
        {
            // didn't find it, try the parent
            return super.loadClass(name, resolve);
        }
    }
}

EDIT: Sergio and ɹoƃı have pointed out that if you call .loadClass with the same classname, you will get a LinkageError. While this is true, the normal use-case for this classloader is to set it as the thread’s classloader Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader() or via Class.forName(), and that works as-is.

However, if .loadClass() was needed directly, this code could be added in the ChildURLClassLoader findClass method at the top.

                Class<?> loaded = super.findLoadedClass(name);
                if( loaded != null )
                    return loaded;