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.
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] |
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.
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] |
| 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] |
| Tool Name | Brief Description | Links to Reference Pages |
|---|---|---|
| native2ascii | Convert text to Unicode Latin-1. | [Unix] [Windows] |
| 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] |
| 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] |
| 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] |
| 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] |
| 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] |
| 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] |
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] |
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.
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] |
