Combines multiple files into a single JAR archive file.
SYNOPSIS
jar [ options ] [manifest] destination input-file [input-files]
DESCRIPTION
The jar tool is a java application that combines multiple files
into a single JAR archive file. jar is a general-purpose
archiving and compression tool, based on ZIP and the ZLIB compression format.
However, jar was designed mainly to facilitate the packaging of
java applets or applications into a single archive. When the
components of an applet or application (.class files, images and
sounds) are combined into a single archive, they may 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
use as a class path entry, whether it
is compressed or not.
The 3 types of input files for the jar tool are
manifest file (optional)
destination jar file
files to be archived
Typical usage is
% jar cf myjarfile *.class
In this example, all the class files in the current directory are
placed into the file named "myjarfile". A manifest file is
automatically generated by the jar tool and is always the first entry
in the jar file. By default, it is named META-INF/MANIFEST.MF. The
manifest file is the place where any meta-information about the
archive is stored. Refer to the Jar file specification for
details about how meta-information is stored in the manifest file.
If you have a pre-existing manifest file that you want the jar tool to
use for the new jar archive, you can specify it using the -m option:
% jar cmf myManifestFile myJarFile *.class
Be sure that any pre-existing manifest file that you use ends with a
new line. The last line of a manifest file will not be parsed if it
doesn't end with a new line character.
Note that when you specify "cfm" instead of "cmf" (i.e., you
invert the order of the "m" and "f" options), you need to specify the
name of the jar archive first, followed by the name of the manifest
file:
% jar cfm myJarFile myManifestFile *.class
The manifest uses RFC822 ascii format, so it is easy to view and process
the manifest-file contents.
Beginning with version 1.3 of the Java 2 SDK, the jar utility
supports JarIndex,
which allows application class loaders to load classes 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
new -i option. 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, and INDEX.LIST file is inserted into the META-INF directory
of main.jar's manifest.
The application class loader will use the information stored in this
file for efficient class loading. Refer to the JarIndex specification
for details about how location information is stored in the index file.
Examples of using the Jar tool to operate on Jar files and Jar file
manifests are provided below
and in the Jar trail of the Java Tutorial.
You can use an argument beginning with the character '@' to
specify a file containing additional arguments, one argument per line.
These arguments are inserted into the command line at the position
of the '@<filename>' argument.
c
Creates a new or empty archive on the standard output.
t
Lists the table of contents from standard output.
x file
Extracts all files, or just the named files, from standard input. If
file is omitted, then all files are extracted; otherwise, only
the specified file or files are extracted.
f
The second argument specifies a jar file to process. In the case of creation,
this refers to the name of the jar file to be created (instead of on stdout).
For table or xtract, the second
argument identifies the jar file to be listed or extracted.
v
Generates verbose output on stderr.
m
Includes manifest information from specified pre-existing manifest file.
Example use:
jar cmf myManifestFile myJarFile *.class
You can add special-purpose name-value attribute headers to the manifest
file that aren't contained in the default manifest. Examples of such headers
would be those for vendor information, version information, package sealing,
and headers to make JAR-bundled applications executable. See the JAR
Files trail in the Java Tutorial and the Runtime Environment's Notes
for Developers web page for examples of using the m
option.
0
Store only, without using ZIP compression.
M
Do not create a manifest file for the entries.
u
Update an existing JAR file by adding files or changing the manifest.
For example,
jar uf foo.jar foo.class
would add the file foo.class to the existing JAR file foo.jar,
and
jar umf manifest foo.jar
would update foo.jar's manifest with the information in manifest.
i
Generate index information for the specified jar file 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 foo.jar's Class-Path
attribute.
-C
Temporaily changes directories during execution of jar command
while processing the next argument. For example,
jar uf foo.jar -C classes bar.class
would change to the classes directory and add the bar.class
from that directory to foo.jar. The following command,
jar uf foo.jar -C classes . -C bin xyz.class
would change to the classes directory and add to foo.jar all f
iles within the classes directory, but not the
classes directory itself, and then change to the bin directory
and add xyz.class to foo.jar.
-Joption
Pass option to the Java virtual machine, where
option is one of the options described on the
reference page for the java application
launcher. For example, -J-Xms48m sets the startup
memory to 48 megabytes.
If any of "files" is a directory, then that directory is processed recursively.
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:
C:\WWWROOT\JAVA\Animator> jar tvf bundle.jar
145 Thu Aug 01 22:27:00 PDT 1996 META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
946 Thu Aug 01 22:24:22 PDT 1996 audio/1.au
1039 Thu Aug 01 22:24:22 PDT 1996 audio/2.au
993 Thu Aug 01 22:24:22 PDT 1996 audio/3.au
48072 Thu Aug 01 22:24:23 PDT 1996 audio/spacemusic.au
16711 Thu Aug 01 22:25:50 PDT 1996 classes/Animator.class
3368 Thu Aug 01 22:26:02 PDT 1996 classes/Wave.class
12809 Thu Aug 01 22:24:48 PDT 1996 images/monkey.jpg
527 Thu Aug 01 22:25:20 PDT 1996 images/at_work.gif
C:\WWWROOT\JAVA\Animator>
If you bundled a stock trade application(applet) into the following jar files:
main.jar buy.jar sell.jar other.jar
and you specified in the Class-Path attribute in main.jar's manifest as:
Class-Path: buy.jar sell.jar other.jar
Then you can use the -i option to speed up your application's class loading time:
$ jar -i main.jar
an INDEX.LIST file is inserted to the META-INF directory which will enable the application class loader to download the right jar files when it is searching for classes or resources.