Where is the java archive file structure specification?

Question

I am completely puzzled that I cannot (easily!) Find the latest Oracle reference specifications for the JAR, WAR, and EAR structures. By this I mean:

Jar

• File Structure for JAR
• Content and structure of MANIFEST-INF
• Scheme of the latest version of MANIFEST.MF

WARS

• File Structure for WAR
• Content and structure of MANIFEST-INF
• Content and structure of WEB-INF
• Scheme of the latest version of web.xml or any other configuration files

The ears

• File Structure for EAR
• Scheme of the latest version of application.xml and any other configuration files

Not only can I not find any of these elements, I can not even find something from the Oracle site (docs.oracle. *) Called "WAR File Specification", "EAR File Specification" or their preferences. Am I missing something here at all?

The search results that I find relate to servlet specifications and older servlet versions (2.2, etc.).

I am looking for final URLs that will tell me how I need to structure and configure JARs, WARs, and EARs according to the latest specifications. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

(I assume you meant META-INF, not MANIFEST-INF ...)

• JARs:

  The latter is Java7, see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jar/jar.html for all three of the above:

  • The contents and structure of META-INF: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jar/jar.html#The_META-INF_directory
  • File structure for JAR: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jar/jar.html#Intro
  • Scheme for the latest version of MANIFEST.MF: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jar/jar.html#Section-Specification

• WARS

  • Structure and content: http://download.oracle.com/otndocs/jcp/servlet-2.4-fr-spec-oth-JSpec/
  • Scheme for web.xml: http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd

• The ears
  • The structure and content are combined above, for deployment specifications see: http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=088
  • Scheme for application.xml: http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/application_6.xsd

All these specifications are completely "normalized", that is, distributed and referred to other sources. Since Oracle took over Sun, all links are in the same lousy state as all other Oracle documentation: - /

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Is Packaging Application - The Java EE 6 Tutorial You Are Looking For?

Update

I am usually embarrassed to post links that I found on Wikipedia pages, but some of them look like the latest specifications (Java 6) and are pretty detailed.

• Jar
  • Overview
  • File specification
• WAR
  • Servlet 2.5 WAR schema
• EAR
  • Packaging applications (as indicated above)

Java EE: XML schemas for Java EE deployment descriptors were marked as December 10, 2009, but it is said to be the latest version.