August 2026
Beginner to intermediate
538 pages
14h 40m
English
Content preview from Java in a Nutshell, 9th Edition
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Appendix B. Platform Tools
This chapter discusses the tools that ship with the OpenJDK version of the Java platform. The tools covered are all command-line tools. If you are using a different version of Java, you may find different tools (with similar function) as part of your distribution. Many third parties build on the foundations provided by these tools in the JDK.
Later in the chapter, we devote a section to Java Flight Recorder (JFR) tooling for deep profiling of Java applications.
Command-Line Tools
The command-line tools we cover are the most commonly used tools and those of greatest utility—they are not a complete description of every available tool.
Note
In some cases, we need to discuss switches that take filesystem paths. As elsewhere in the book, we use Unix conventions for such cases. Other aspects of these tools, such as the command-line switches available, should be the same across operating systems.
Here we’ll discuss the following tools, including their basic usage, description, and common switches:
-
javac -
java -
jar -
javadoc -
jdeps -
jps -
jstat -
jstatd -
jinfo -
jstack -
jmap -
javap -
jlink -
jmod -
jcmd -
jwebserver
Note
Options described throughout are targeted at Java 25 and may vary in older Java
versions. For example, --class-path was introduced when --module-path became
an option but won’t work on Java 8 and earlier (which require -cp or
--classpath).
javac
Basic usage
javac some/package/MyClass.java
Description
javac is the Java source ...
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I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.