diff --git a/libjava/gnu/gcj/runtime/HelperClassLoader.java b/libjava/gnu/gcj/runtime/HelperClassLoader.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9b81b522ffa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libjava/gnu/gcj/runtime/HelperClassLoader.java
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+/* Copyright (C) 2005  Free Software Foundation
+
+   This file is part of libgcj.
+
+This software is copyrighted work licensed under the terms of the
+Libgcj License.  Please consult the file "LIBGCJ_LICENSE" for
+details.  */
+
+package gnu.gcj.runtime;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FilenameFilter;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLClassLoader;
+import java.util.StringTokenizer;
+
+/**
+ * This is a URLClassLoader that has an extra helper method for
+ * handling things like java.ext.dirs.
+ */
+class HelperClassLoader extends URLClassLoader
+{
+  HelperClassLoader()
+  {
+    super(new URL[0]);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * This is a helper method that adds all the jar and zip files from
+   * a given list of paths to this class loader.  The paths are taken
+   * from a system property whose name is provided as an argument.
+   */
+  final void addDirectoriesFromProperty(String propName)
+  {
+    StringTokenizer st
+      = new StringTokenizer (System.getProperty (propName, ""),
+			     File.pathSeparator);
+    try
+      {
+	while (st.hasMoreElements ())
+	  {
+	    String dirname = st.nextToken ();
+	    File dir = new File (dirname);
+            if (dir.exists ())
+	      {
+		if (! dirname.endsWith (File.separator))
+		  dirname = dirname + File.separator;
+		String files[] = dir.list (new FilenameFilter ()
+		  {
+		    public boolean accept (File dir, String name)
+		    {
+		      return name.endsWith (".jar") || name.endsWith (".zip");
+		    }
+		  });
+		for (int i = files.length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
+		  addURL(new URL("file", "", -1, dirname + files[i]));
+	      }
+	  }
+      }
+    catch (java.net.MalformedURLException x)
+      {
+	// This should never happen.
+	throw new RuntimeException(x);
+      }
+  }
+}