Is there any way to create mapping documents that "include" other mapping documents?

I'm looking for the ability to create a single mapping file that uses some sort of include directive to combine all the per-class mapping files in a sub-project, so I can then save effort by referencing this one file from the hibernate.cfg.xml when I draw together sub-projects (components) into a finished project.

(I'm stuck with per-class mapping files rather than one huge file, because that's how the eclipse hibernate plugin generates them.)

Worst case I can do this by referencing all the per-class mappings one after the other in the hibernate.cfg.xml, I know this. I'd prefer a more elegant solution if one existed.

No, you can't do that, unforunately. However, you can load multiple configuration files. My solution to exactly this problem was to configure hibernate with mulitple configuration files: one for the application properties (JDBC connections, show_sql="true", etc.), then one for each jar that uses hibernate and the app needs.

Here's a little sample code. sPath is the application's normal .cfg.xml file. mapFiles is a List of names of config files with <mapping> tags, though any confg file is allowed. I get that list from an XML file that configures my app.. you can make it any way you like.