Java Development Kit

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Java Development Kit (JDK)
Developer(s) Oracle Corporation
Stable release 7 Update 51 / 14 January 2014 (2014-01-14)
Preview release 8 build b123 / 7 January 2014 (2014-01-07)
Operating system Cross-platform
Type Software development kit
License Sun License (most of it also under GPL)
Website http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index.html

The Java Development Kit (JDK) is an implementation of either one of the Java SE, Java EE or Java ME platforms[1] released by Oracle Corporation in the form of a binary product aimed at Java developers on Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X or Windows.[2] Since the introduction of the Java platform, it has been by far the most widely used Software Development Kit (SDK).[citation needed] On 17 November 2006, Sun announced that it would be released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), thus making it free software. This happened in large part on 8 May 2007, when Sun contributed the source code to the OpenJDK.[3]

JDK contents

The JDK has as its primary components a collection of programming tools, including:

  • appletviewer – this tool can be used to run and debug Java applets without a web browser
  • apt – the annotation-processing tool[4]
  • extcheck – a utility which can detect JAR-file conflicts
  • idlj – the IDL-to-Java compiler. This utility generates Java bindings from a given Java IDL file.
  • jabswitch – the Java Access Bridge. Exposes assistive technologies on Microsoft Windows systems.
  • java – the loader for Java applications. This tool is an interpreter and can interpret the class files generated by the javac compiler. Now a single launcher is used for both development and deployment. The old deployment launcher, jre, no longer comes with Sun JDK, and instead it has been replaced by this new java loader.
  • javac – the Java compiler, which converts source code into Java bytecode
  • javadoc – the documentation generator, which automatically generates documentation from source code comments
  • jar – the archiver, which packages related class libraries into a single JAR file. This tool also helps manage JAR files.
  • javafxpackager – tool to package and sign JavaFX applications
  • jarsigner – the jar signing and verification tool
  • javah – the C header and stub generator, used to write native methods
  • javap – the class file disassembler
  • javaws – the Java Web Start launcher for JNLP applications
  • JConsole – Java Monitoring and Management Console
  • jdb – the debugger
  • jhat – Java Heap Analysis Tool (experimental)
  • jinfo – This utility gets configuration information from a running Java process or crash dump. (experimental)
  • jmap – This utility outputs the memory map for Java and can print shared object memory maps or heap memory details of a given process or core dump. (experimental)
  • jmc – Java Mission Control
  • jps – Java Virtual Machine Process Status Tool lists the instrumented HotSpot Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) on the target system. (experimental)
  • jrunscript – Java command-line script shell.
  • jstack – utility which prints Java stack traces of Java threads (experimental)
  • jstat – Java Virtual Machine statistics monitoring tool (experimental)
  • jstatd – jstat daemon (experimental)
  • keytool – tool for manipulating the keystore
  • pack200 – JAR compression tool
  • policytool – the policy creation and management tool, which can determine policy for a Java runtime, specifying which permissions are available for code from various sources
  • VisualVM – visual tool integrating several command-line JDK tools and lightweight performance and memory profiling capabilities
  • wsimport – generates portable JAX-WS artifacts for invoking a web service.
  • xjc – Part of the Java API for XML Binding (JAXB) API. It accepts an XML schema and generates Java classes.

Experimental tools may not be available in future versions of the JDK.

The JDK also comes with a complete Java Runtime Environment, usually called a private runtime, due to the fact that it is separated from the "regular" JRE and has extra contents. It consists of a Java Virtual Machine and all of the class libraries present in the production environment, as well as additional libraries only useful to developers, such as the internationalization libraries and the IDL libraries.

Copies of the JDK also include a wide selection of example programs demonstrating the use of almost all portions of the Java API.

Ambiguity between a JDK and an SDK

The JDK forms an extended subset of a software development kit (SDK). It includes "tools for developing, debugging, and monitoring Java applications".[5] Oracle strongly suggests that they now use the term "JDK" to refer to the Java SE Development Kit. The Java EE SDK is available with or without the "JDK", by which they specifically mean the Java SE 7 JDK.[6]

Other JDKs

In addition to the most widely used JDK discussed in this article, there are other JDKs commonly available for a variety of platforms, some of which started from the Sun JDK source and some which did not. All of them adhere to the basic Java specifications, but they often differ in explicitly unspecified areas, such as garbage collection, compilation strategies, and optimization techniques. They include:

In development or in maintenance mode:

Not being maintained or discontinued:

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Java SE 7 Features and Enhancements". Oracle Corporation. Retrieved 1 January 2013. 
  2. ↑ "OpenJDK homepage". Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Retrieved 1 January 2013. 
  3. ↑ "Sun's May 8th announcement of source code for JDK". 
  4. ↑ "JDK 5.0 Java Annotation Processing Tool (APT)-related APIs & Developer Guides -- from Sun Microsystems". Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  5. ↑ "Java SE Downloads". Oracle. Retrieved 10 July 2013. 
  6. ↑ "Java EE 7 SDK distributions require JDK 7" "Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 7 SDK - Installation Instructions". Installing the Software. Oracle. Retrieved 10 July 2013. 
  7. ↑ "developerWorks : IBM developer kits : Downloads". Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  8. ↑ "JRockit Family Download page". Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  9. ↑ "Support at Apple". 
  10. ↑ "Java Linux Contact Information". Archived from the original on 19 August 2007. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 
  11. ↑ "Java-Linux Latest Information". Archived from the original on 19 October 1996. Retrieved 2012-08-05. 

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Java Programming
Java platforms
Sun technologies
Platform technologies
Major third-party technologies
History
Major programming languages
Java conferences


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