Index: src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/query/lucene/SearchIndex.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/query/lucene/SearchIndex.java	(revision 720459)
+++ src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/query/lucene/SearchIndex.java	(working copy)
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -89,6 +90,8 @@
  * Lucene.
  */
 public class SearchIndex extends AbstractQueryHandler {
+	
+	public static final String CLASSPATH_CONFIG_PREFIX = "classpath:";
 
     public static final List VALID_SYSTEM_INDEX_NODE_TYPE_NAMES
         = Collections.unmodifiableList(Arrays.asList(new Name[]{
@@ -1124,20 +1127,38 @@
         if (indexingConfigPath == null) {
             return null;
         }
-        File config = new File(indexingConfigPath);
-        if (!config.exists()) {
-            log.warn("File does not exist: " + indexingConfigPath);
-            return null;
-        } else if (!config.canRead()) {
-            log.warn("Cannot read file: " + indexingConfigPath);
-            return null;
-        }
         try {
-            DocumentBuilderFactory factory =
-                    DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
-            DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
-            builder.setEntityResolver(new IndexingConfigurationEntityResolver());
-            indexingConfiguration = builder.parse(config).getDocumentElement();
+        	 DocumentBuilderFactory factory =
+             DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+        	 DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
+        	 builder.setEntityResolver(new IndexingConfigurationEntityResolver());
+
+	        if (indexingConfigPath.startsWith(CLASSPATH_CONFIG_PREFIX)) {
+                ClassLoader cl = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
+                if (cl == null) {
+                    cl = this.getClass().getClassLoader();
+                }
+	        	InputStream config = cl.getResourceAsStream(indexingConfigPath.substring(CLASSPATH_CONFIG_PREFIX.length()));
+	        	if (config == null) {
+		            log.warn("Classpath resource does not exist: {}", indexingConfigPath);
+		            return null;
+	        	}
+	        	indexingConfiguration = builder.parse(config).getDocumentElement();
+	        	log.info("indexingConfigPath '{}' resolved as classpath resource", indexingConfigPath);
+
+	        } else {
+		        File config = new File(indexingConfigPath);
+		        if (!config.exists()) {
+		            log.warn("File does not exist: {}", indexingConfigPath);
+		            return null;
+		        } else if (!config.canRead()) {
+		            log.warn("Cannot read file: {}", indexingConfigPath);
+		            return null;
+		        }
+		        indexingConfiguration = builder.parse(config).getDocumentElement();
+	        }
+           
+            
         } catch (ParserConfigurationException e) {
             log.warn("Unable to create XML parser", e);
         } catch (IOException e) {