# liquibase diff; Cannot find database driver **URL:** \ **Category:** Liquibase Development\ **Created:** [January 23, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.liquibase.org/t/liquibase-diff-cannot-find-database-driver/2608 "2013-01-23T16:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![el\_litos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/96bed5/32.png) [@el\_litos](https://forum.liquibase.org/u/el_litos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.liquibase.org/t/liquibase-diff-cannot-find-database-driver/2608/1 "2013-01-23T16:52:00Z")
Hi!  I am triyng to launch this command-line comparison: liquibase.bat --classpath=C:\liquibase-2.0.5-bin\ojdbc14.jar --driver=oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver --url=jdbc:oracle:thin:@PC-240484.abg.corp:1521:XE    --username=test     --password=test  diff   --referenceDriver=org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver  --referenceUrl=jdbc:derby:c:/test   --referenceUsername=test     --referencePassword=arce97 But it returns the following error: SEVERE 23/01/13 9:38:liquibase: Cannot find database driver: org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver liquibase.exception.DatabaseException: java.lang.RuntimeException: Cannot find database driver: org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver It is something extrange because if a launch a liquibase -update with this missing driver defined in liquibase.properties the update runs ok. What can happen? ---
**Author:** ![el\_litos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/96bed5/32.png) [@el\_litos](https://forum.liquibase.org/u/el_litos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.liquibase.org/t/liquibase-diff-cannot-find-database-driver/2608/2 "2013-01-23T16:52:00Z")
No answer? ---
**Author:** ![Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@Guest](https://forum.liquibase.org/u/Guest)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.liquibase.org/t/liquibase-diff-cannot-find-database-driver/2608/3 "2013-01-23T16:52:00Z")
i got the samething with the exception that  i’m using mysql :s ---
**Author:** ![Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@Guest](https://forum.liquibase.org/u/Guest)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.liquibase.org/t/liquibase-diff-cannot-find-database-driver/2608/4 "2013-01-23T16:52:00Z")
It seems that no one will answer this question  ![](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/ze/images/frowmn.gif).  does any one still use this tool at least ??? ---
**Author:** ![Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@Guest](https://forum.liquibase.org/u/Guest)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.liquibase.org/t/liquibase-diff-cannot-find-database-driver/2608/5 "2013-01-23T16:52:00Z")
Liquibase is using some stupid classLoader trick. That’s where the problem comes from. Try adding classpath to your liquibase.properties file instead of using command line arguments. This worked for me ####################### url=jdbc:hsqldb:mem:file:test username=SA password= defaultSchemaName=PUBLIC changeLogFile=master.xml classpath=hsqldb-2.2.8.jar ---
**Author:** ![Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@Guest](https://forum.liquibase.org/u/Guest)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.liquibase.org/t/liquibase-diff-cannot-find-database-driver/2608/6 "2013-01-23T16:52:00Z")
Liquibase is a great tool. Though it really does some classloader trick. When your jars are in java’s classpath but they are not specified in liquibase’s classpath property - it will say “Cannot find database driver”. And I missed something when answering the original question. [el\_litos](http://forum.liquibase.org#user/el_litos) provided classpath only for Oracle driver and not for Derby. That was his problem. ---
**Author:** ![ljnelson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.liquibase.org/ljnelson/32/120_2.png) [@ljnelson](https://forum.liquibase.org/u/ljnelson)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.liquibase.org/t/liquibase-diff-cannot-find-database-driver/2608/7 "2013-01-23T16:52:00Z")
Liquibase is not using any classloader tricks.  Adding classpath to your liquibase.properties file is exactly the same as adding it via the --classpath switch. One nice undocumented thing is that liquibase will automatically add any jars that are present in its lib directory to the classpath.  Don’t have a lib directory?  Make one, and put your database driver .jar files in there.  Then you don’t have to add them to any Liquibase classpath manually. Another nice undocumented thing (noticing a trend?) is that the --driver argument is not required.  JDBC will find the proper driver to handle the URL for you. So if you couple these two things together, you can lose a big chunk off your arguments to liquibase. Best, Laird – [http://about.me/lairdnelson](http://about.me/lairdnelson)