Documentation Contents

JDK Tools and Utilities


General

Standard JDK Tools and Utilities

Experimental JDK Tools and Utilities

NOTE - The tools described in this section are unsupported and experimental in nature and should be used with that in mind. They might not be available in future JDK versions.

Troubleshooting Documentation


NOTE - The Windows and Unix references pages for some tools have minor differences in configuration and usage -- for example, the character used to specify directory separators may be different.



General Information

The following documents contain important information you will need to know to get the most out of the JDK tools.

Document Type Platform
JDK File Structure [Unix] [Windows]
Setting the Classpath [Unix] [Windows]
How Classes are Found [Unix and Windows]

Enhancements

The man page for each tool reflects the latest behavior for that tool, but the following page details the tools changes specific to a release.


Basic Tools

These tools are the foundation of the JDK. They are the tools you use to create and build applications.

Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
appletviewer Run and debug applets without a web browser. [Unix] [Windows]
extcheck Utility to detect Jar conflicts. [Unix] [Windows]
jar Create and manage Java Archive (JAR) files.
See Java Archive Files page for the JAR specification.
[Unix] [Windows]
java The launcher for Java applications. In this release, a single launcher is used both for development and deployment.
The old deployment launcher, jre, is no longer provided.
[Unix] [Windows]
javac The compiler for the Java programming language. [Unix] [Windows]
javadoc API documentation generator.
See Javadoc Tool page for doclet and taglet APIs.
[Unix] [Windows]
javah C header and stub generator. Used to write native methods. [Unix] [Windows]
javap Class file disassembler [Unix] [Windows]
jdb The Java Debugger.
See JPDA for the debugger architecture specifications.
[Unix] [Windows]

Security Tools

These security tools help you set security policies on your system and create applications that can work within the scope of security policies set at remote sites.
Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
keytool Manage keystores and certificates. [Unix] [Windows]
jarsigner Generate and verify JAR signatures. [Unix] [Windows]
policytool GUI tool for managing policy files. [Unix] [Windows]

These security tools help you obtain, list, and manage Kerberos tickets.

Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
kinit Tool for obtaining Kerberos v5 tickets. Equivalent functionality is available on the Solaris operating system via the kinit tool. For example, for Solaris 11, see the kinit reference page. [Windows]
klist Command-line tool to list entries in credential cache and key tab. Equivalent functionality is available on the Solaris operating system via the klist tool. For example, for Solaris 11, see the klist reference page. [Windows]
ktab Command-line tool to help the user manage entries in the key table. Equivalent functionality is available on the Solaris operating system via the kadmin tool. For example, for Solaris 11, see the kadmin reference page. [Windows]

Internationalization Tools

This tool helps to create localizable applications.
Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
native2ascii Convert text to Unicode Latin-1. [Unix] [Windows]

Remote Method Invocation (RMI) Tools

These tools help to create applications that interact over the Web or other network.
Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
rmic Generate stubs and skeletons for remote objects. [Unix] [Windows]
rmiregistry Remote object registry service. [Unix] [Windows]
rmid RMI activation system daemon. [Unix] [Windows]
serialver Return class serialVersionUID. [Unix] [Windows]

Java IDL and RMI-IIOP Tools

These tools are used when creating applications that use OMG-standard IDL and CORBA/IIOP.
Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
tnameserv Provides access to the naming service. [Unix] [Windows]
idlj Generates .java files that map an OMG IDL interface and enable an application written in the Java programming language to use CORBA functionality. [Unix] [Windows]
orbd Provides support for clients to transparently locate and invoke persistent objects on servers in the CORBA environment. ORBD is used instead of the Transient Naming Service, tnameserv. ORBD includes both a Transient Naming Service and a Persistent Naming Service. The orbd tool incorporates the functionality of a Server Manager, an Interoperable Naming Service, and a Bootstrap Name Server. When used in conjunction with the servertool, the Server Manager locates, registers, and activates a server when a client wants to access the server. [Unix] [Windows]
servertool Provides ease-of-use interface for the application programmers to register, unregister, startup, and shutdown a server. [Unix] [Windows]

Java Deployment Tools

Utilities for use in conjunction with deployment of java applications and applets on the web.
Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
javafxpackager Packages JavaFX applications for deployment. See Deploying JavaFX Applications for more information. [Unix and Windows]
pack200 Transforms a JAR file into a compressed pack200 file using the Java gzip compressor. The compressed packed files are highly compressed JARs, which can be directly deployed, saving bandwidth and reducing download time. [Unix] [Windows]
unpack200 Transforms a packed file produced by pack200 into a JAR file. [Unix] [Windows]

Java Web Start Tools

Utilities for use in conjunction with Java Web Start.
Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
javaws Command line tool for launching Java Web Start and setting various options.
See Java Web Start Guide for more information.
[Unix] [Windows]

Java Troubleshooting, Profiling, Monitoring and Management Tools

Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
jconsole A JMX-compliant graphical tool for monitoring a Java virtual machine. It can monitor both local and remote JVMs. It can also monitor and manage an application.
See Monitoring and Management for the Java Platform for more information.
[Unix] [Windows]

Java Web Services Tools

Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
schemagen Schema generator for Java Architecture for XML Binding. [Unix] [Windows]
wsgen Tool to generate JAX-WS portable artifacts. [Unix] [Windows]
wsimport Tool to generate JAX-WS portable artifacts. [Unix] [Windows]
xjc Binding compiler for Java Architecture for XML Binding. [Unix] [Windows]

Monitoring Tools

You can use the following tools to monitor JVM performance statistics. The tools described in this section are unsupported and experimental, and should be used with that in mind. They may not be available in future JDK versions.

These tools are supported on all platforms except Windows 98 and Windows ME.

Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
jcmd Experimental: JVM Diagnostic Commands tool - Sends diagnostic command requests to a running Java Virtual Machine. [Unix] [Windows]
jps Experimental: JVM Process Status Tool - Lists instrumented HotSpot Java virtual machines on a target system. [Unix] [Windows]
jstat Experimental: JVM Statistics Monitoring Tool - Attaches to an instrumented HotSpot Java virtual machine and collects and logs performance statistics as specified by the command line options. [Unix] [Windows]
jstatd Experimental: JVM jstat Daemon - Launches an RMI server application that monitors for the creation and termination of instrumented HotSpot Java virtual machines and provides a interface to allow remote monitoring tools to attach to Java virtual machines running on the local system. [Unix] [Windows]

Troubleshooting Tools

The following tools can be used for specific troubleshooting tasks. The tools described in this section are unsupported and experimental in nature and should be used with that in mind. They may not be available in future JDK versions.

Some of these tools are not currently available on Windows platforms.

Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
jinfo Experimental - Configuration Info for Java - Prints configuration information for a given process or core file or a remote debug server. [Unix] [Windows]
jhat Experimental - Heap Dump Browser - Starts a web server on a heap dump file (for example, produced by jmap -dump), allowing the heap to be browsed. [Unix] [Windows]
jmap Experimental - Memory Map for Java - Prints shared object memory maps or heap memory details of a given process or core file or a remote debug server. [Unix] [Windows]
jsadebugd Experimental - Serviceability Agent Debug Daemon for Java - Attaches to a process or core file and acts as a debug server. [Unix] [Windows]
jstack Experimental - Stack Trace for Java - Prints a stack trace of threads for a given process or core file or remote debug server. [Unix] [Windows]

Refer to the Java™ SE Troubleshooting web site for descriptions of tools, options, and other information to use in analyzing problems. The documents at this site contain suggestions about what to try before submitting a bug report and what data to collect for a report.


Scripting Tools

The following tools can be used to run scripts that interact with the Java platform.

Tool Name Brief Description Links to Reference Pages
jjs Runs the Nashorn command-line script shell. [Unix] [Windows]
jrunscript Experimental - Script shell for Java - Runs a script. This tool is unsupported and experimental in nature and should be used with that in mind. It might not be available in future JDK versions. [Unix] [Windows]

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