The Java TM Tutorial

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Trail: JAR Files
Lesson: Using JAR Files: The Basics

## Viewing the Contents of a JAR File

> The basic format of the command for viewing the contents of a JAR file is:

> >     jar tf jar-file

> Let's look at the options and argument used in this command:
> - The `t` option indicates that you want to view the table of contents of the JAR file.
> - The `f` option indicates that the JAR file whose contents are to be viewed is specified on the command line. Without the `f` option, the Jar tool would expect a filename on stdin.
> - The `jar-file` argument is the filename (or path and filename) of the JAR file whose contents you want to view.

> The `t` and `f` options can appear in either order, but there must not be any space between them.

> This command will display the JAR file's table of contents to stdout.

> You can optionally add the verbose option, `v`, to produce additional information about file sizes and last-modified dates in the output.

### An Example

> Let's use the Jar tool to list the contents of the `TicTacToe.jar` file we created in the previous section:

> >     jar tf TicTacToe.jar

> This command displays the contents of the JAR file to stdout:

> >     META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
> >     TicTacToe.class
> >     audio/
> >     audio/beep.au
> >     audio/ding.au
> >     audio/return.au
> >     audio/yahoo1.au
> >     audio/yahoo2.au
> >     images/
> >     images/cross.gif
> >     images/not.gif

> The JAR file contains the `TicTacToe` class file and the audio and images directory, as expected. The output also shows that JAR file contains a manifest file, `META-INF/MANIFEST.MF`, which was automatically placed in the archive by the JAR tool.

> All pathnames are displayed with forward slashes, regardless of the platform or operating system you're using. Paths in JAR files are always relative; you'll never see a path beginning with `C:`, for example.

> The JAR tool will display additional information if you use the `v` option:

> >     jar tvf TicTacToe.jar

> For example, the verbose output for the TicTacToe JAR file would look similar to this:

> >      256 Mon Apr 20 10:50:28 PDT 1998 META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
> >     3885 Mon Apr 20 10:49:50 PDT 1998 TicTacToe.class
> >        0 Wed Apr 15 16:39:32 PDT 1998 audio/
> >     4032 Wed Apr 15 16:39:32 PDT 1998 audio/beep.au
> >     2566 Wed Apr 15 16:39:32 PDT 1998 audio/ding.au
> >     6558 Wed Apr 15 16:39:32 PDT 1998 audio/return.au
> >     7834 Wed Apr 15 16:39:32 PDT 1998 audio/yahoo1.au
> >     7463 Wed Apr 15 16:39:32 PDT 1998 audio/yahoo2.au
> >        0 Wed Apr 15 16:39:44 PDT 1998 images/
> >      157 Wed Apr 15 16:39:44 PDT 1998 images/cross.gif
> >      158 Wed Apr 15 16:39:44 PDT 1998 images/not.gif

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