jar(1)                     OpenBSD Reference Manual                     jar(1)



NAME
       jar-The Java Archive Tool

       jar combines multiple files into a single JAR archive file.

SYNOPSIS
       Create jar file
          jar c[v0Mmfe] [manifest] [jarfile] [entrypoint] [-C dir] inputfiles
          [-Joption]

       Update jar file
          jar u[v0Mmfe] [manifest] [jarfile] [entrypoint] [-C dir] inputfiles
          [-Joption]

       Extract jar file
          jar x[vf] [jarfile] [inputfiles] [-Joption]

       List table of contents of jar file
          jar t[vf] [jarfile] [inputfiles] [-Joption]

       Add index to jar file
          jar i jarfile [-Joption]

       where:

          cuxtiv0Mmfe
             Options that control the jar command.

           jarfile
             Jar file to be created (c), updated (u), extracted (x), or have
             its table of contents viewed (t). The -f option and filename
             jarfile are a pair -- if either is present, they must both
             appear. Note that omitting f and jarfile accepts a "jar file"
             from standard input (for x and t) or sends the "jar file" to
             standard output (for c and u).


          inputfiles
             Files or directories, separated by spaces, to be combined into
             jarfile (for c and u), or to be extracted (for x) or listed (for
             t) from jarfile. All directories are processed recursively. The
             files are compressed unless option 0 (zero) is used.

           manifest
             Pre-existing manifest file whose name: value pairs are to be
             included in MANIFEST.MF in the jar file. The -m option and
             filename manifest are a pair -- if either is present, they must
             both appear. The letters m, f and e must appear in the same order
             that manifest, jarfile, entrypoint appear.


          entrypoint
             The name of the class that set as the application entry point for
             stand-alone applications bundled into executable jar file. The -e
             option and entrypoint are a pair -- if either is present, they
             must both appear. The letters m, f and e must appear in the same
             order that manifest, jarfile, entrypoint appear.

          -C dir
             Temporarily changes directories to dir while processing the
             following inputfiles argument. Multiple -C dir inputfiles sets
             are allowed.

          -Joption
             Option to be passed into the Java runtime environment. (There
             must be no space between -J and option).

DESCRIPTION
       The jar tool combines multiple files into a single JAR archive file.
       jar is a general-purpose archiving and compression tool, based on ZIP
       and the ZLIB @
       http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ compression format. However, jar was designed
       mainly package java applets or applications into a single archive. When
       the components of an applet or application (files, images and sounds)
       are combined into a single archive, they can be downloaded by a java
       agent (like a browser) in a single HTTP transaction, rather than
       requiring a new connection for each piece. This dramatically improves
       download times. jar also compresses files and so further improves
       download time. In addition, it allows individual entries in a file to
       be signed by the applet author so that their origin can be
       authenticated. The syntax for the jar tool is almost identical to the
       syntax for the tar command. A jar archive can be used as a class path @
       http://ccc.sfbay/4291383/attachment/classpath.html entry, whether or
       not it is compressed.

       Typical usage to combine files into a jar file is:

          % jar cf myFile.jar *.class


       In this example, all the class files in the current directory are
       placed into the file named myFile.jar. The jar tool automatically
       generates a manifest file entry named META-INF/MANIFEST.MF. It is
       always the first entry in the jar file. The manifest file declares
       meta-information about the archive, and stores that data as
       name : value pairs. Refer to the JAR file specification @
       http://ccc.sfbay/guide/jar/jar.html#JAR%20Manifest for details
       explaining how the jar tool stores meta-information in the manifest
       file.

       If a jar file should include name : value pairs contained in an
       existing manifest file, specify that file using the -m option:

          % jar cmf myManifestFile myFile.jar *.class


       An existing manifest file must end with a new line character.  jar does
       not parse the last line of a manifest file if it does not end with a
       new line character.


       Note:  A jar command that specifies cfm on the command line instead of
       cmf (the order of the m and -f options are reversed), the jar command
       line must specify the name of the jar archive first, followed by the
       name of the manifest file:


          % jar cfm myFile.jar myManifestFile *.class


       The manifest is in a text format inspired by RFC822 ASCII format, so it
       is easy to view and process manifest-file contents.

       To extract the files from a jar file, use x:

          % jar xf myFile.jar


       To extract individual files from a jar file, supply their filenames:

          % jar xf myFile.jar foo bar


       Beginning with version 1.3 of the Java 2 SDK, the jar utility supports
       JarIndex @
       http://ccc.sfbay/guide/jar/jar.html#JAR%20Index, which allows
       application class loaders to load classes more efficiently from jar
       files. If an application or applet is bundled into multiple jar files,
       only the necessary jar files will be downloaded and opened to load
       classes. This performance optimization is enabled by running jar with
       the -ioption. It will generate package location information for the
       specified main jar file and all the jar files it depends on, which need
       to be specified in the Class-Path attribute of the main jar file's
       manifest.

          % jar i main.jar


       In this example, an INDEX.LIST file is inserted into the META-INF
       directory of main.jar.
       The application class loader uses the information stored in this file
       for efficient class loading.  For details about how location
       information is stored in the index file, refer to the JarIndex
       specification.
       To copy directories, first compress files in dir1 to stdout, then
       extract from stdin to dir2 (omitting the -f option from both jar
       commands):

          % (cd dir1; jar c .) | (cd dir2; jar x)


       To review command samples which use jar to opeate on jar files and jar
       file manifests, see Examples, below. Also refer to the jar trail of the
       Java Tutorial @
       http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/jar.

OPTIONS
       c  Creates a new archive file named jarfile (if f is specified) or to
          standard output (if f and jarfile are omitted). Add to it the files
          and directories specified by inputfiles.

       u  Updates an existing file jarfile (when f is specified) by adding to
          it files and directories specified by inputfiles. For example:


          jar uf foo.jar foo.class
       would add the file foo.class to the existing jar file foo.jar. The -u
       option can also update the manifest entry, as given by this example:


          jar umf manifest foo.jar
       updates the foo.jar manifest with the name : value pairs in manifest.

       x  Extracts files and directories from jarfile (if f is specified) or
          standard input (if f and jarfile are omitted). If inputfiles is
          specified, only those specified files and directories are extracted.
          Otherwise, all files and directories are extracted. The time and
          date of the extracted files are those given in the archive.

       t  Lists the table of contents from jarfile (if f is specified) or
          standard input (if f and jarfile are omitted). If inputfiles is
          specified, only those specified files and directories are listed.
          Otherwise, all files and directories are listed.

       i  Generate index information for the specified jarfile and its
          dependent jar files. For example:


          jar i foo.jar

       would generate an INDEX.LIST file in foo.jar which contains location
       information for each package in foo.jar and all the jar files specified
       in the Class-Path attribute of foo.jar. See the index example.

       f  Specifies the file jarfile to be created (c), updated (u), extracted
          (x), indexed (i), or viewed (t). The -f option and filename jarfile
          are a pair -- if present, they must both appear. Omitting f and
          jarfile accepts a jar file name from stdin(for x and t) or sends jar
          file to stdout (for c and u).

       v  Generates verbose output to standard output. Examples shown below.

       0  (zero) Store without using ZIP compression.

       M  Do not create a manifest file entry (for c and u), or delete a
          manifest file entry if one exists (for u).

       m  Includes name : value attribute pairs from the specified manifest
          file manifest in the file at META-INF/MANIFEST.MF. jar adds a
          name : value pair unless an entry already exists with the same name,
          in which case jar updates its value.

       On the command line, the letters m and f must appear in the same order
       that manifest and jarfile appear. Example use:


          jar cmf myManifestFile myFile.jar *.class
       You can add special-purpose name : value attribute pairs to the
       manifest that aren't contained in the default manifest. For example,
       you can add attributes specifying vendor information, version
       information, package sealing, or to make JAR-bundled applications
       executable. See the JAR Files @
       http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/jar/ trail in the Java Tutorial
       for examples of using the -m option.

       e  Sets entrypoint as the application entry point for stand-alone
          applications bundled into executable jar file. The use of this
          option creates or overrides the Main-Class attribute value in the
          manifest file. This option can be used during creation of jar file
          or while updating the jar file. This option specifies the
          application entry point without editing or creating the manifest
          file.
          For example, this command creates Main.jar where the Main-Class
          attribute value in the manifest is set to Main:


          jar cfe Main.jar Main Main.class

       The java runtime can directly invoke this application by running the
       following command:


          java -jar Main.jar
       If the entrypoint class name is in a package it may use either a dot
       (".") or slash ("/") character as the delimiter. For example, if
       Main.class is in a package called foo the entry point can be specified
       in the following ways:


          jar -cfe Main.jar foo/Main foo/Main.class
       or


          jar -cfe Main.jar foo.Main foo/Main.class
       Note:  specifying both -m and -e options together when the given
       manifest also contains the Main-Class attribute results in an ambigous
       Main.class specification, leading to an error and the jar creation or
       update operation is aborted.

       -C  dir
          Temporarily changes directories (cd dir) during execution of the jar
          command while processing the following inputfiles argument. Its
          operation is intended to be similar to the -C option of the UNIX tar
          utility.
          For example, this command changes to the classes directory and adds
          the bar.class from that directory to foo.jar:


          jar uf foo.jar -C classes bar.class
       This command changes to the classes directory and adds to foo.jar all
       files within the classes directory (without creating a classes
       directory in the jar file), then changes back to the original directory
       before changing to the bin directory to add xyz.class to foo.jar.


          jar uf foo.jar -C classes . -C bin xyz.class
       If classes holds files bar1 and bar2, then here's what the jar file
       will contain using jar tf foo.jar:


          META-INF/
          META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
          bar1
          bar2
          xyz.class

       -Joption
          Pass option to the Java runtime environment, where option is one of
          the options described on the reference page for the java application
          launcher @
          http://ccc.sfbay/4291383/attachment/java.html#options. For example,
          -J-Xmx48M sets the maximum memory to 48 megabytes. It is a common
          convention for -J to pass options to the underlying runtime
          environment.

COMMAND LINE ARGUMENT FILES
       To shorten or simplify the jar command line, you can specify one or
       more files that themselves contain arguments to the jar command (except
       -J options). This enables you to create jar commands of any length,
       overcoming command line limits imposed by the operating system.

       An argument file can include options and filenames. The arguments
       within a file can be space&ndash;separated or newline-separated.
       Filenames within an argument file are relative to the current
       directory, not relative to the location of the argument file. Wildcards
       (*) that might otherwise be expanded by the operating system shell are
       not expanded. Use of the @ character to recursively interpret files is
       not supported. The -J options are not supported because they are passed
       to the launcher, which does not support argument files.

       When executing jar, pass in the path and name of each argument file
       with the @ leading character. When jar encounters an argument beginning
       with the character @, it expands the contents of that file into the
       argument list.
       The example below, classes.list holds the names of files output by a
       find command:

          % find . -name '*.class' -print > classes.list


       You can then execute the jar command on Classes.list by passing it to
       jar using argfile syntax:

          % jar cf my.jar @classes.list


       An argument file can specify a path, but any filenames inside the
       argument file that have relative paths are relative to the current
       working directory, not to the path passed in. Here is an example:


          % jar @path1/classes.list


EXAMPLES
       To add all the files in a particular directory to an archive
       (overwriting contents if the archive already exists). Enumerating
       verbosely (with the -v option) will tell you more information about the
       files in the archive, such as their size and last modified date.


          % ls
          1.au          Animator.class    monkey.jpg
          2.au          Wave.class        spacemusic.au
          3.au          at_work.gif

          % jar cvf bundle.jar *
          added manifest
          adding: 1.au(in = 2324) (out= 67)(deflated 97%)
          adding: 2.au(in = 6970) (out= 90)(deflated 98%)
          adding: 3.au(in = 11616) (out= 108)(deflated 99%)
          adding: Animator.class(in = 2266) (out= 66)(deflated 97%)
          adding: Wave.class(in = 3778) (out= 81)(deflated 97%)
          adding: at_work.gif(in = 6621) (out= 89)(deflated 98%)
          adding: monkey.jpg(in = 7667) (out= 91)(deflated 98%)
          adding: spacemusic.au(in = 3079) (out= 73)(deflated 97%)


       If you already have separate subdirectories for images, audio files and
       classes, you can combine them into a single jar file:


          % ls -F
          audio/ classes/ images/

          % jar cvf bundle.jar audio classes images
          added manifest
          adding: audio/(in = 0) (out= 0)(stored 0%)
          adding: audio/1.au(in = 2324) (out= 67)(deflated 97%)
          adding: audio/2.au(in = 6970) (out= 90)(deflated 98%)
          adding: audio/3.au(in = 11616) (out= 108)(deflated 99%)
          adding: audio/spacemusic.au(in = 3079) (out= 73)(deflated 97%)
          adding: classes/(in = 0) (out= 0)(stored 0%)
          adding: classes/Animator.class(in = 2266) (out= 66)(deflated 97%)
          adding: classes/Wave.class(in = 3778) (out= 81)(deflated 97%)
          adding: images/(in = 0) (out= 0)(stored 0%)
          adding: images/monkey.jpg(in = 7667) (out= 91)(deflated 98%)
          adding: images/at_work.gif(in = 6621) (out= 89)(deflated 98%)

          % ls -F
          audio/ bundle.jar classes/ images/


       To see the entry names in the jarfile, use the t option:


          % jar tf bundle.jar
          META-INF/
          META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
          audio/1.au
          audio/2.au
          audio/3.au
          audio/spacemusic.au
          classes/Animator.class
          classes/Wave.class
          images/monkey.jpg
          images/at_work.gif


       To add an index file to the jar file for speeding up class loading, use
       the i option.
       Example:


          If you split the inter-dependent classes for a stock trade
          application into three jar files: main.jar, buy.jar, and sell.jar.


          If you specify the Class-path attribute in the main.jar manifest as:
          Class-Path: buy.jar sell.jar


          then you can use the -i option to speed up the class loading time
          for your application:
          % jar i main.jar


          An INDEX.LIST file is inserted to the META-INF directory. This
          enables the application class loader to download the specified jar
          files when it is searching for classes or resources.

SEE ALSO
       The Jar Overview @
       http://ccc.sfbay/guide/jar/jarGuide.html


       The Jar File Specification @
       http://ccc.sfbay/guide/jar/jar.html


       The JarIndex Spec @
       http://ccc.sfbay/guide/jar/jar.html#JAR%20Index


       Jar Tutorial @
       http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/jar on the Java Software web
       site.


       pack200 Reference Page @
       http://ccc.sfbay/4291383/share/pack200.html

                                  05 Aug 2006                           jar(1)
