I have a hierarchy such as

class A

class B extends A

abstract class C extends A

class D extends C
class E extends C

Class C is only a class that factors out logic from D and E, and as such has no persistent fields, nor has a table associated (while the rest of the hierarchy is mapped with joined-subclass).

I see that xdoclet only takes into account A and B, in the mapping generation, because in C I have no @hibernate.joined-subclass element (since there is no table): if I add the tag also the subclasses are included in the final A.hbm.xml, but with the added joined-subclass for C which is not needed (at least I think) and is indeed harmful (if I'm not mistaken it obliges me to add a corresponding table).

Is this true? Is there a different route to this that does not involve manual editing of the xdoclet file?

You'll have to add a table for C

Ok, but is this required by hibernate or by xdoclet?
Thanks.

Not sure, you'll have to test. Tell me, I'm interested.