[grannysmith]

hi, i'm completely new in programming java on os x. i've a .jar-file from a visual age project (windows). i just want to know how to open this .jar file archive - so that i can work with it. developer tools are installed. thx and greets,

granny

[DaGuy]

I am not quite sure what you need but I will cover some ground below and hope it's some value.

1. To view the contents of a jar file: You can use the Java Browser that shipped with Development Tools it is usually at /YourHD/Developers/Applications.

2. To work with the jar: just add the the jar itself directly to your classpath. If you search this forum, you will find a ton of stuff and some very explicit directions.

[grannysmith]

can i extract the .jar-archive somehow?

[Angus_D]

If it's a program you can run java -jar jarfile.jar from a terminal window and that will launch it.

You can work with it as it is... If you really want to, you could unzip it, I think (aren't jar files just zip archives, anyways?)

[howardm4]

Yes, just use 'unzip'.

.jar's are nothing more than zip'd collections of .class files.

[grannysmith]

jep - just unzipped the jar-file by dragging it on the stuffit expander. thx. i'll just have to put the pieces together in a new project, i think.

greets,
volker

[brooklyn_mac_guy]

from the terminal command line you can also do

jar xf whatever.jar

x for extract, f for 'use following filename'

use

jar tf whatever.jar

to get a listing of what's in the archive.