rjar : Recursive Java Archive (jar) Tool

rjar is a command-line tool that acts like the regular jar tool, but recursively ! It is very useful when e.g. using .ear or .war files, or any other "jars of jars"...

Also works zith .zip files !

Supported features :

• list jar entries recursively : all entries are displayed including entries of nested jars if any
• expand a jar recursively : expand the jar and its nested jars to the specified directory
• recreate a jar from an expanded rjar : allows to rebuild a jar with nested jars from an expanded directory structure
• graphical front-end : tree view of your jars, with regexp filtering

Install

Download binary distribution :

• .zip
• .tar.gz

Unpack wherever you want, and follow instructions in <unpack_dir>/README.txt.

Examples

List the contents of an ear :

$ rjar t ./projects/jarutils/src/test/resources/test.ear 
test.ear/META-INF/
test.ear/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
test.ear/META-INF/application.xml
test.ear/mywebapp.war/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/META-INF/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/META-INF/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/core/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/fmt/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/sql/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/tlv/
test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/core/ConditionalTagSupport.class
...

Extract the whole ear recursively :

$ rjar x ./projects/jarutils/src/test/resources/test.ear /tmp
$ find /tmp/test.ear 
/tmp/test.ear
/tmp/test.ear/META-INF
/tmp/test.ear/META-INF/application.xml
/tmp/test.ear/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/META-INF
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/test.jsp
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/core
/tmp/test.ear/mywebapp.war/WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.0.jar/javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/core/ConditionalTagSupport.class
...

Rebuild a previously expanded (r)jar :

$ rjar r /tmp/test.ear /tmp/recreated
$ ls /tmp/recreated
test.ear

As any other command line utility, rjar can be combined with other unix commands. Here's how you can find a particular class in a set of jar files :

$ cd $ECLIPSE_HOME
$ find . -name *.jar -exec rjar t {} \; | grep plugin.properties
com.ibm.icu_3.6.1.v20070906.jar/plugin.properties
com.jcraft.jsch_0.1.31.jar/plugin.properties
javax.servlet.jsp_2.0.0.v200706191603.jar/plugin.properties
javax.servlet_2.4.0.v200706111738.jar/plugin.properties
javax.wsdl_1.4.0.v200706111329.jar/plugin.properties
...

You can also use the GUI front end to open the jar(s) in a tree view :

$ rjar ui ./test.ear ./commons-logging.jar

Entries list can be filtered using regexp :

From Groovy

rjar is implemented as a set of Groovy classes. It basically augments the JarFile class from the JDK, via a Category class, adding methods to crawl the jar file recursively.

Maven dependency :

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.pojosontheweb</groupId>
  <artifactId>rjar</artifactId>
  <version>...</version>
</dependency>

Usage :

import com.rvkb.util.jar.*

JarFile jar = new JarFile(new File(pathToJar))

use(JUJarCategory) {


	jar.eachEntry { JUJarEntry entry ->
		...
	}

	jar.eachEntryRecursive { JUJarEntry entry ->
		...
	}
}

Api docs can be found here.

(c) pojosontheweb.com