title: Spring classpath prefix difference
body: <p>Documented <a href="http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/resources.html#resources-classpath-wildcards" rel="noreferrer">here</a> it states</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>This special prefix specifies that all
    classpath resources that match the
    given name must be obtained
    (internally, this essentially happens
    via a ClassLoader.getResources(...)
    call), and then merged to form the
    final application context definition.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Can someone explain this? </p>
  
  <p>What is the difference between using <code>classpath*:conf/appContext.xml</code> as opposed to <code>classpath:conf/appContext.xml</code> without the asterisk.</p>