Standard Java JDK Tools and Utilities

These tools are the foundation of the JDK. They are the tools you use to create and build applications.
Tool Name Brief Description
appletviewer Run and debug applets without a web browser.
Apt Annotation processing tool.
See Annotation Processing Tool for program annotation processing.
extcheck Utility to detect Jar conflicts.
Jar Create and manage Java Archive (JAR) files.
See Java Archive Files page for the JAR specification.
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.
javac The compiler for the Java programming language.

javadoc API documentation generator.
See Javadoc Tool page for doclet and taglet APIs.
javah C header and stub generator. Used to write native methods.
javap Class file disassemble
Jdb The Java Debugger.
See JPDA for the debugger architecture specifications.

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
keytool Manage keystores and certificates.
jarsigner Generate and verify JAR signatures.
policytool GUI tool for managing policy files.
These security tools help you obtain, list, and manage Kerberos tickets.
Tool Name Brief Description
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.
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.
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.

Internationalization Tools
This tool helps to create localizable applications.
Tool Name Brief Description
native2ascii Convert text to Unicode Latin-1.

Remote Method Invocation (RMI) Tools
These tools help to create applications that interact over the Web or other network.
Tool Name Brief Description
rmic Generate stubs and skeletons for remote objects.
rmiregistry Remote object registry service.
rmid RMI activation system daemon.
serialver Return class serialVersionUID.

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
tnameserv Provides access to the naming service.
idlj Generates .java files that map an OMG IDL interface and enable an application written in the Java programming language to use CORBA functionality.
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.
servertool Provides ease-of-use interface for the application programmers to register, unregister, startup, and shutdown a server.

Java Deployment Tools
Utilities for use in conjunction with deployment of java applications and applets on the web.
Tool Name Brief Description
javafxpackager Packages JavaFX applications for deployment. See Deploying JavaFX Applications for more information.
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.
unpack200 Transforms a packed file produced by pack200 into a JAR file.

Java Web Start Tools
Utilities for use in conjunction with Java Web Start.
Tool Name Brief Description
javaws Command line tool for launching Java Web Start and setting various options.
See Java Web Start Guide for more information.

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
jinfo Experimental - Configuration Info for Java - Prints configuration information for a given process or core file or a remote debug server.
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.
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.
jsadebugd Experimental - Serviceability Agent Debug Daemon for Java - Attaches to a process or core file and acts as a debug server.
jstack Experimental - Stack Trace for Java - Prints a stack trace of threads for a given process or core file or remote debug server.
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 tool can be used to run scripts that interact with the Java platform. 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.
Tool Name Brief Description
jrunscript Experimental - Script shell for Java - Runs a script.