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 O
(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
and f must appear in the same order that manifest and
jarfile appear.
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
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 used as a class
path
entry, whether it is compressed or not.
Typical usage to combine files into a jar file is:
C:\Java> jar cf myFile.jar *.class
In this example, all the class files in the current directory are
placed
into the file named "myFile.jar". A manifest file entry named
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF is automatically generated by the jar tool and is
always the first entry in the jar file. The manifest file is the place
where any meta-information about the archive is stored as
name:value pairs.
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 whose name:value pairs you want the jar tool to include for the new jar
archive, you can specify it using the m option:
C:\Java> jar cmf myManifestFile myFile.jar *.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:
C:\Java> 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, as in:
C:\Java> jar xf myFile.jar
To extract only certain files from a jar file, supply their
filenames:
C:\Java> jar xf myFile.jar foo bar
Beginning with version 1.3 of the Java 2 SDK, the jar
utility supports JarIndex,
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
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.
C:\Java> 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 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.
A standard way to copy directories is to first compress files in
dir1
to standard out, then extract from standard in to dir2 (omitting f
from both jar commands):
C:\Java> (cd dir1; jar c .) | (cd dir2; jar x)
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.
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.
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"
from standard input (for x and t) or sends the "jar file" to standard
output (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. A name:value
pair is added unless one already exists with the same name, in which
case its value is updated.
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. Examples of such attributes would be those for vendor
information, version information, package sealing, and to make
JAR-bundled applications executable. See the JAR
Files trail in the Java Tutorial and the
Notes for Developers page for examples of using the m
option.
-Cdir
Temporarily changes directories (cddir)
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:
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 files within the classes directory (without creating
a classes directory in the jar file), then change back to the original
directory before changing to the bin directory to add xyz.class
to foo.jar. If classes
holds files bar1 and bar2, then here's
what the jar file would contain using jar tf foo.jar:
Pass option to the Java runtime environment, where option
is one of the options described on the reference page for the java application launcher. 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-separated or
newline-separated.
Filenames within an argument file are relative to the current
directory, not 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.
For example, you could use a single argument file named "classes.list"
to hold the names of the
files:
C:\Java> dir /b *.class > classes.list
Then execute the jar command passing in the argfile:
C:\Java> jar cf my.jar @classes.list
An argument file can be passed in with a path, but any filenames inside
the argument file that have relative paths are relative to the current
working directory, not the
path passed in. Here's such an example:
C:\Java> 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.
To add an index file to the jar file for speeding up
class loading,
use the "i" option.
Let's say 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 your
application's class loading time:
C:\Java> 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 specified jar files
when it is searching for classes or resources.