jar.yml

--- 
jar: |-
  Combines multiple files into a single JAR archive file.
  
  SYNOPSIS
  
  Create jar file
  	jar c[v0M]f jarfile [-C dir] inputfiles [-Joption]
  	jar c[v0]mf manifest jarfile [-C dir] inputfiles [-Joption]
  	jar c[v0M] [-C dir] inputfiles [-Joption]
  	jar c[v0]m manifest [-C dir] inputfiles [-Joption]
  
  Update jar file
  	jar u[v0M]f jarfile [-C dir] inputfiles [-Joption]
  	jar u[v0]mf manifest jarfile [-C dir] inputfiles [-Joption]
  	jar u[v0M] [-C dir] inputfiles [-Joption]
  	jar u[v0]m manifest [-C dir] inputfiles [-Joption]
  
  Extract jar file
  	jar x[v]f jarfile [inputfiles] [-Joption]
  	jar x[v] [inputfiles] [-Joption]
  
  List table of contents of jar file
  	jar t[v]f jarfile [inputfiles] [-Joption]
  	jar t[v] [inputfiles] [-Joption]
  
  Add index to jar file
  	jar i jarfile [-Joption]
  
  
  where:
  	cuxtiv0Mmf
  		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 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 manifesfile 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.
  	-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 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.
  
  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.
  
  OPTIONS
  
  c
  	Creates a new archive to 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.
  
  -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:
  
  		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:
  		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. 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.
  
  C:\Java> dir
  
  12/09/96  12:20a        <DIR>          .    
  12/09/96  12:17a        <DIR>          ..  
  12/09/96  12:18a                   946 1.au
  12/09/96  12:18a                 1,039 2.au
  12/09/96  12:18a                   993 3.au
  12/09/96  12:19a                48,072 spacemusic.au
  12/09/96  12:19a                   527 at_work.gif
  12/09/96  12:19a                12,818 monkey.jpg
  12/09/96  12:19a                16,242 Animator.class
  12/09/96  12:20a                 3,368 Wave.class
                10 File(s)        91,118 bytes
  
  C:\Java> jar cvf bundle.jar *
  
  adding manifest
  adding: 1.au
  adding: 2.au
  adding: 3.au
  adding: Animator.class
  adding: Wave.class
  adding: at_work.gif
  adding: monkey.jpg
  adding: spacemusic.au
  
  If you already have separate subdirectories for images, audio files and classes, you can combine them into a single jar file:
  C:\Java> dir
  
  12/09/96  12:11a        <DIR>          .
  12/09/96  12:17a        <DIR>          ..
  12/03/96  06:54p        <DIR>          audio
  12/06/96  02:02p        <DIR>          images
  12/09/96  12:10a        <DIR>          classes
                 5 File(s)        207,360 bytes
  
  C:\Java> jar cvf bundle.jar audio classes images
  adding: audio/1.au
  adding: audio/2.au
  adding: audio/3.au
  adding: audio/spacemusic.au
  adding: classes/Animator.class
  adding: classes/Wave.class
  adding: images/monkey.jpg
  adding: images/at_work.gif
  
  C:\Java> dir 
  12/09/96  12:11a        <DIR>          .
  12/09/96  12:17a        <DIR>          ..
  12/09/96  12:11a               207,360 bundle.jar
  12/03/96  06:54p        <DIR>          audio
  12/06/96  02:02p        <DIR>          images
  12/09/96  12:10a        <DIR>          classes
                 6 File(s)        207,360 bytes
  To see the entry names in the jarfile, use the "t" option:
  C:\Java> 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.
  
  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.