pack200(1)		    General Commands Manual		    pack200(1)



Name
       pack200 - JAR Packing tool

SYNOPSIS
       pack200 [ options ] output-file JAR-file

       Options	may be in any order. The last option on the command line or in
       a properties file supersedes all previously specified options.

	  options
	     Command-line options.

	  output-file
	     Name of the output file.

	  JAR-file
	     Name of the input file.


DESCRIPTION
       The pack200 tool is a Java application that transforms a JAR file  into
       a  compressed  pack200 file using the Java gzip compressor. The pack200
       files are highly compressed files that can be directly deployed, saving
       bandwidth and reducing download time.

       The pack200 tool uses several options to fine-tune and set the compres-
       sion engine.

   Typical usage:
       % pack200 myarchive.pack.gz myarchive.jar

       In this	example,  myarchive.pack.gz  is	 produced  using  the  default
       pack200 settings.

OPTIONS
       -r --repack

       Produces a JAR file by packing the file myarchive.jar and unpacking it.
       The resulting file can be used as an input to the jarsigner(1) tool.

       % pack200 --repack myarchive-packer.jar myarchive.jar

       % pack200 --repack myarchive.jar

       -g --no-gzip

       Produces a pack200 file. With this option a suitable compressor must be
       used, and the target system must use a corresponding decompresser.

       % pack200 --no-gzip myarchive.pack myarchive.jar

       -G --strip-debug

       Strips  attributes  used	 for  debugging from the output. These include
       SourceFile, LineNumberTable, LocalVariableTable and  LocalVariableType-
       Table. Removing these attributes reduces the size of both downloads and
       installations but reduces the usefulness of debuggers.

       --keep-file-order

       Preserve the order of files in the input	 file;	this  is  the  default
       behavior.

       -O --no-keep-file-order

       The  packer  will  reorder and transmit all elements. Additionally, the
       packer may remove JAR directory names. This will	 reduce	 the  download
       size;  however,	certain	 JAR file optimizations, such as indexing, may
       not work correctly.

       -Svalue --segment-limit=value

       The value is the estimated target size N (in  bytes)  of	 each  archive
       segment. If a single input file requires
       more  than N bytes, it will be given its own archive segment. As a spe-
       cial case, a value of -1 will produce a single large segment  with  all
       input  files,  while  a	value  of  0 will produce one segment for each
       class. Larger archive segments result in less fragmentation and	better
       compression, but processing them requires more memory.

       The  size  of  each  segment  is estimated by counting the size of each
       input file to be transmitted in the segment, along with the size of its
       name and other transmitted properties.

       The  default  is -1, which means the packer will always create a single
       segment output file. In cases where extremely large  output  files  are
       generated,  users are strongly encouraged to use segmenting or break up
       the input file into smaller JARs.

       A 10MB JAR packed without this limit  will  typically  pack  about  10%
       smaller, but the packer may require a larger Java heap (about ten times
       the segment limit).

       -Evalue --effort=value

       If the value is set to a single decimal digit, the packer will use  the
       indicated amount of effort in compressing the archive. Level 1 may pro-
       duce somewhat larger size and faster compression speed, while  level  9
       will  take  much longer but may produce better compression. The special
       value 0 instructs the packer to copy  through  the  original  JAR  file
       directly	 with  no  compression.	 The  JSR  200	standard  requires any
       unpacker to understand this special  case  as  a	 pass-through  of  the
       entire archive.

       The  default is 5, investing a modest amount of time to produce reason-
       able compression.

       -Hvalue --deflate-hint=value

       Overrides the default, which preserves the input information,  but  may
       cause the transmitted archive to be larger. The possible values are:

	  true

	  false
	     In	 either	 case,	the packer will set the deflation hint accord-
	     ingly in the output archive, and will not transmit the individual
	     deflation hints of archive elements.


	  keep
	     Preserve  deflation hints observed in the input JAR. (This is the
	     default.)


       -mvalue --modification-time=value

       The possible values are:

	  latest
	     The packer will attempt  to  determine  the  latest  modification
	     time, among all the available entries in the original archive, or
	     the latest modification time of all the available entries in that
	     segment.  This  single  value  will be transmitted as part of the
	     segment and applied to all the entries in each segment. This  can
	     marginally	 decrease  the	transmitted size of the archive at the
	     expense of setting all installed files to a single date.

	  keep
	     Preserves modification times observed in the input JAR. (This  is
	     the default.)


       -Pfile --pass-file=file

       Indicates  that	a  file should be passed through bytewise with no com-
       pression. By repeating the option, multiple  files  may	be  specified.
       There  is no pathname transformation, except that the system file sepa-
       rator is replaced by the JAR file separator  "/".  The  resulting  file
       names  must  match exactly as strings with their occurrences in the JAR
       file. If file is a directory name, all files under that directory  will
       be passed.

       -Uaction --unknown-attribute=action

       Overrides  the  default	behavior;  i.e.,  the classfile containing the
       unknown attribute will be passed through with the specified action. The
       possible values for actions are:

	  error
	     The pack200 operation as a whole will fail with a suitable expla-
	     nation.

	  strip
	     The attribute will be dropped. Note:  Removing  the  required  VM
	     attributes may cause Class Loader failures.

	  pass
	     Upon encountering this attribute, the entire class will be trans-
	     mitted as though it is a resource.


       -Cattribute-name=layout --class-attribute=attribute-name=action
       -Fattribute-name=layout --field-attribute=attribute-name=action
       -Mattribute-name=layout --method-attribute=attribute-name=action
       -Dattribute-name=layout --code-attribute=attribute-name=action

       With the above four options, the attribute layout can be specified  for
       a  class	 entity,  such	as  Class  attribute,  Field attribute, Method
       attribute, and Code attribute. The attribute-name is the	 name  of  the
       attribute for which the layout or action is being defined. The possible
       values for action are:

	  some-layout-string
	     The layout language is defined in the JSR 200 specification.

	  Example: --class-attribute=SourceFile=RUH

	  error
	     Upon encountering this attribute, the pack200 operation will fail
	     with a suitable explanation.

	  strip
	     Upon  encountering	 this attribute, the attribute will be removed
	     from the output. Note: removing VM-required attributes may	 cause
	     Class Loader failures.


       Example: --class-attribute=CompilationID=pass will cause the class file
       containing this attribute to be passed through without  further	action
       by the packer.

       -f pack.properties --config-file=pack.properties

       A  configuration	 file,	containing  Java  properties to initialize the
       packer, may be specified on the command line.

       % pack200 -f pack.properties myarchive.pack.gz myarchive.jar
       % more pack.properties
       # Generic properties for the packer.
       modification.time=latest
       deflate.hint=false
       keep.file.order=false
       # This option will cause the files bearing new attributes to
       # be reported as an error rather than passed uncompressed.
       unknown.attribute=error
       # Change the segment limit to be unlimited.
       segment.limit=-1

       -v --verbose

       Outputs minimal messages. Multiple specification of  this  option  will
       output more verbose messages.

       -q --quiet

       Specifies quiet operation with no messages.

       -lfilename --log-file=filename

       Specifies a log file to output messages.

       -? -h --help

       Prints help information about this command.

       -V --version

       Prints version information about this command.

       -Joption

       Passes  option  to  the	Java  launcher called by pack200. For example,
       -J-Xms48m sets the startup memory to 48 megabytes. Although it does not
       begin  with  -X, it is not a standard option of pack200. It is a common
       convention for -J to pass options to the underlying VM executing appli-
       cations written in Java.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values are returned:

	0 for successful completion;

       >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
	  o unpack200(1)

	  o Java SE Documentation @
	    http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/index.html

	  o Java Deployment Guide - Pack200 @
	    http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/deploy-
	    ment/deployment-guide/pack200.html

	  o jar(1) - Java Archive Tool

	  o jarsigner(1) - JAR Signer tool

	  o attributes(5) man page


NOTES
       This command should not be confused with pack(1). They are distinctly
       separate products.

       The Java SE API Specification provided with the JDK is the superseding
       authority, in case of discrepancies.

				  16 Mar 2012			    pack200(1)