Java Development Kit

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. The JDK includes a private JVM and a few other resources to finish the development of a Java Application.^[2] Since the introduction of the Java platform, it has been by far the most widely used Software Development Kit (SDK). On 17 November 2006, Sun announced that they would release it 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 that detects 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 The old deployment launcher, jre, no longer comes with Sun JDK, and instead it has been replaced by this new java loader.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 that 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 a 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 that did not. All adhere to the basic Java specifications, but often differ in explicitly unspecified areas, such as garbage collection, compilation strategies, and optimization techniques. They include:

In development or in maintenance mode:

• Azul Systems Zing, low latency JDK for Linux;^[7]
• Azul Systems / OpenJDK-based Zulu for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, embedded and the cloud;^[8]
• OpenJDK / IcedTea;
• GNU's Classpath and GCJ (The GNU Compiler for Java);
• Aicas JamaicaVM;
• IBM J9 JDK, for AIX, Linux, Windows, MVS, OS/400, Pocket PC, z/OS;^[9]
• Oracle Corporation's JRockit JDK, for Windows, Linux, and Solaris;^[10]

Not being maintained or discontinued:

• Apache Harmony
• Apple's Mac OS Runtime for Java JVM/JDK for Classic Mac OS^[11]
• Blackdown Java – Port of Sun's JDK for Linux^[12][13]

See also

• Classpath (Java)
• Java platform
• Java version history

References

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Java Programming

• Oracle Java SE
• IBM Java technology JDK
• Open source JDK 7 project
• Open source JDK project
• Community support
• GNU Classpath – a Free software JDK alternative
• Javadoc Developer Kit (JDK) Search Engine
• Oracle's Java SE Support Roadmap

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