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JDK File Structure for Windows

JDKandJREFileStructure

JDKTools

ThispageprovidesanintroductoryoverviewoftheJDKdirectoriesandthefilestheycontain.NotethatthefilestructureoftheJREisidentical
tothatoftheJDK'sjredirectory.

DevelopmentFilesandDirectories
ThissectiondescribesthemostimportantfilesanddirectoriesrequiredtodevelopapplicationsfortheJavaplatform.
(Notethatsomeofthedirectoriesthatarenotrequiredincludedemos,Javasourcecode,andCheaderfiles.Thesearementionedinthe
AdditionalFilesandDirectoriessection.)

jdk1.6.0
___________|____________________
|||
binlibjre
||__________|_____________________
java.exetools.jar||
javac.exedt.jarbinlib
javap.exe_____|______________________|_______________________
javah.exe||||||||
javadoc.exejava.execlientserverrt.jarextsecurityappletfonts
java.dll||charsets.jar|
awt.dlljvm.dlljvm.dlllocaledata.jar
AssumingtheJDKsoftwareisinstalledatc:\jdk1.6.0,herearesomeofthemostimportantdirectories:
c:\jdk1.6.0
RootdirectoryoftheJDKsoftwareinstallation.Containscopyright,license,andREADMEfiles.Also
containssrc.zip,thearchiveofsourcecodefortheJavaplatform.
c:\jdk1.6.0\bin
ExecutablefilesforthedevelopmenttoolscontainedintheJavaDevelopmentKit.ThePATHenvironment
variableshouldcontainanentryforthisdirectory.Formoreinformationonthetools,seetheJDKTools.
c:\jdk1.6.0\lib
Filesusedbythedevelopmenttools.Theseincludetools.jar,whichcontainsnoncoreclassesfor
supportofthetoolsandutilitiesintheJDK.Alsoincludesdt.jar,theDesignTimearchiveofBeanInfo
filesthattellinteractivedevelopmentenvironments(IDE's)howtodisplaytheJavacomponentsandhow
toletthedevelopercustomizethemforanapplication.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre
RootdirectoryoftheJavaruntimeenvironmentusedbytheJDKdevelopmenttools.Theruntime
environmentisanimplementationoftheJavaplatform.Thisisthedirectoryrepresentedby
thejava.homesystemproperty.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre\bin
ExecutablefilesandDLLsfortoolsandlibrariesusedbytheJavaplatform.Theexecutablefilesare
identicaltofilesin/jdk1.6.0/bin.Thejavalaunchertoolservesasanapplicationlauncher(and
replacedtheoldjretoolthatshippedwith1.1versionsoftheJDK).Thisdirectorydoesnotneedtobein
thePATHenvironmentvariable.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre\bin\client
ContainstheDLLfilesusedbytheJavaHotSpotTMClientVirtualMachine.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre\bin\server
ContainstheDLLfilesusedbytheJavaHotSpotTMServerVirtualMachine.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre\lib
Codelibraries,propertysettings,andresourcefilesusedbytheJavaruntimeenvironment.Forexample:
rt.jarthebootstrapclasses(theRunTimeclassesthatcomprisetheJavaplatform'scoreAPI).
charsets.jarcharacterconversionclasses.
Asidefromtheextsubdirectory(describedbelow)thereareseveraladditionalresourcesubdirectories
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/windows/jdkfiles.html

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6/4/2014

JDK File Structure for Windows

notdescribedhere.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre\lib\ext
DefaultinstallationdirectoryforExtensionstotheJavaplatform.
localedata.jarlocaledataforjava.textandjava.util.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre\lib\security
Containsfilesusedforsecuritymanagement.Theseincludethesecuritypolicy(java.policy)and
securityproperties(java.security)files.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre\lib\applet
Jarfilescontainingsupportclassesforappletscanbeplacedinthelib/applet/directory.Thisreduces
startuptimeforlargeappletsbyallowingappletclassestobepreloadedfromthelocalfilesystembythe
appletclassloader,providingthesameprotectionsasiftheyhadbeendownloadedoverthenet.
c:\jdk1.6.0\jre\lib\fonts
ContainsTrueTypefontfilesforusebytheplatform.

AdditionalFilesandDirectories
Thissectiondescribesthedirectorystructureforthedemos,Javasourcecode,andCheaderfiles.
jdk1.6.0
___________|__________
|||
demoincludesrc.zip
___|______________________
||||
appletsjfcjpdaplugin

Theadditionaldirectoriesshownaboveare:
c:\jdk1.6.0\src.zip
ArchivecontainingsourcecodefortheJavaplatform.
c:\jdk1.6.0\demo
Examples,withsourcecode,thatshowyouhowtoprogramfortheJavaplatform.
c:\jdk1.6.0\demo\applets
Appletsthatcanbeusedonawebpage.
c:\jdk1.6.0\demo\jfc
ExamplesthatuseJava2DTMandJFC\Swingfunctionality.
c:\jdk1.6.0\demo\jpda
ExamplesofusingtheJavaPlatformDebuggingArchitecture.Includessourcecodeforthejavadtandjdb
utilities.
c:\jdk1.6.0\demo\plugin
ContainsdemosforusewiththeJavaPluginproduct.
c:\jdk1.6.0\include
ClanguageheaderfilesthatsupportnativecodeprogrammingusingtheJavaNativeInterfaceandthe
JavaVirtualMachineDebuggerInterface.

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