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on May 15, 2013

Search classes in jar file

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We do not need to download special tool to search for classes in jar files.  This post explains how to do that without the use of any additional tool.

You need to have java sdk installed on your machine to use this tip. If you are a java developer, you might already have it on your computer.

Search for a class in all the jar files

You can use the below command to search for a class name in all the available jars in the current folder and the subfolders.

 forfiles /S /M *.jar /C "cmd /c jar -tvf @file | findstr /C:"classname" && echo @path"

Example: Search for Logger.class

C:\>forfiles /S /M *.jar /C "cmd /c jar -tvf @file | findstr /C:"Logger.class" && echo @file"
2567 Thu Sep 14 02:03:58 IST 2006 org/apache/log4j/Logger.class
  885 Thu Sep 14 02:04:00 IST 2006 org/apache/log4j/spi/RootLogger.class
C:\jars\lib\log4j-1.2.14.jar"
  687 Wed Apr 13 10:48:08 IST 2011 org/quartz/core/ErrorLogger.class
C:\jars\lib\quartz-all-1.8.5.jar"
 3267 Sat May 08 12:40:52 IST 2010 org/slf4j/helpers/NOPLogger.class
 1375 Sat May 08 12:40:50 IST 2010 org/slf4j/Logger.class
  455 Sat May 08 12:40:50 IST 2010 org/slf4j/spi/LocationAwareLogger.class
C:\jars\lib\slf4j-api-1.6.0.jar"

If  ‘jar’ command generates error, you may need to add the java binary files folder to PATH environment variable. Otherwise, you can specify the full path of ‘jar.exe’ while running jar command. You can find this file in  C:\Program Files\java\jdk*\bin (or) C:\Program Files(x86)\java\jdk*\bin

List the classes in a jar file

jar -tvf jarfile | findstr /C:".class"

Find all the jar files in a folder

To list all the jar files in the current folder and all its subfolders, we can use the below command.

dir /S /b *.jar

List all the jars installed on the system

You can run the below command to list all the jar files available on your computer.

dir c:\  d:\ /S /b | findstr /E /C:".jar"

This command looks for jar files in the system drives C: and D:

12 comments… add one
  • Tal

    Great one !
    Saved me a lot of work :)

    Thanks,
    Tal

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  • Pasinski

    Thanks a lot, worked like a charm

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  • Sander

    Very nice, exactly what I was searching for. Thanks!

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  • Senthil

    Can you also add how to look for a symbol(variable names/method names) in the jar files to make the article complete? Sometimes, we need to find which jar/class has a particular symbol/method defined. This also helps if we need to check on a production system if a jar file has the new method added to the class.

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  • Nikhil Joshi

    Great command, Thx

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  • Suresh

    Very Useful. It finds the class among any number of jars :). Thanks

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  • sarthak

    very very helpful. Thanks

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  • Deepak

    i’m getting error saying:
    ‘forfiles’ is not recognized as an internal or external command. operable program or batch file

    Reply Link
    • Srini

      Which windows version are you running?

      Link
  • Vinodh

    Great !!
    Saved My Time !!

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  • Anthony Brown

    jar -tvf | perl -lane ‘print if /someName\.class/’

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  • Gerry

    The forfiles command only allows for one option (e.g.@file). When using the wildcard (*.jar) on a recursive search, it doesn’t show the directory path of the jar file that is being processed. As shown below, it shows me the files within the jar files but not the actual jar file name. How can you see the file path as well?

    forfiles /S /M *.jar /C “cmd /c jar -tvf @file”

    META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
    oracle/iam/saks/dev/adapters/GetOUForUser.class
    META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
    oracle/iam/saks/dev/adapters/GetOUForUser.class
    oracle/iam/saks/dev/adapters/OUPrePop.class

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