JarURLConnection

public abstract class JarURLConnection extends URLConnection

A URL Connection to a Java ARchive (JAR) file or an entry in a JAR file.

The syntax of a JAR URL is:

 jar:<url>!/{entry}
 

for example:

jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/baz.jar!/COM/foo/Quux.class

Jar URLs should be used to refer to a JAR file or entries in a JAR file. The example above is a JAR URL which refers to a JAR entry. If the entry name is omitted, the URL refers to the whole JAR file: jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/baz.jar!/

Users should cast the generic URLConnection to a JarURLConnection when they know that the URL they created is a JAR URL, and they need JAR-specific functionality. For example:

 URL url = new URL("jar:file:/home/duke/duke.jar!/");
 JarURLConnection jarConnection = (JarURLConnection)url.openConnection();
 Manifest manifest = jarConnection.getManifest();
 

JarURLConnection instances can only be used to read from JAR files. It is not possible to get a OutputStream to modify or write to the underlying JAR file using this class.

Examples:

A Jar entry
jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/baz.jar!/COM/foo/Quux.class
A Jar file
jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/baz.jar!/
A Jar directory
jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/baz.jar!/COM/foo/

!/ is referred to as the separator.

When constructing a JAR url via new URL(context, spec), the following rules apply:

  • if there is no context URL and the specification passed to the URL constructor doesn't contain a separator, the URL is considered to refer to a JarFile.
  • if there is a context URL, the context URL is assumed to refer to a JAR file or a Jar directory.
  • if the specification begins with a '/', the Jar directory is ignored, and the spec is considered to be at the root of the Jar file.

    Examples:

    context: jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/jar.jar!/, spec:baz/entry.txt
    url:jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/jar.jar!/baz/entry.txt
    context: jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/jar.jar!/baz, spec:entry.txt
    url:jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/jar.jar!/baz/entry.txt
    context: jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/jar.jar!/baz, spec:/entry.txt
    url:jar:http://www.foo.com/bar/jar.jar!/entry.txt

Field Summary

protected URLConnection jarFileURLConnection The connection to the JAR file URL, if the connection has been initiated.

Inherited Field Summary

Protected Constructor Summary

JarURLConnection(URL url)
Creates the new JarURLConnection to the specified URL.

Public Method Summary

Attributes
getAttributes()
Return the Attributes object for this connection if the URL for it points to a JAR file entry, null otherwise.
Certificate[]
getCertificates()
Return the Certificate object for this connection if the URL for it points to a JAR file entry, null otherwise.
String
getEntryName()
Return the entry name for this connection.
JarEntry
getJarEntry()
Return the JAR entry object for this connection, if any.
abstract JarFile
getJarFile()
Return the JAR file for this connection.
URL
getJarFileURL()
Returns the URL for the Jar file for this connection.
Attributes
getMainAttributes()
Returns the main Attributes for the JAR file for this connection.
Manifest
getManifest()
Returns the Manifest for this connection, or null if none.

Inherited Method Summary

Fields

protected URLConnection jarFileURLConnection

The connection to the JAR file URL, if the connection has been initiated. This should be set by connect.

Protected Constructors

protected JarURLConnection (URL url)

Creates the new JarURLConnection to the specified URL.

Parameters
url the URL
Throws
MalformedURLException if no legal protocol could be found in a specification string or the string could not be parsed.

Public Methods

public Attributes getAttributes ()

Return the Attributes object for this connection if the URL for it points to a JAR file entry, null otherwise.

Returns
  • the Attributes object for this connection if the URL for it points to a JAR file entry, null otherwise.
Throws
IOException if getting the JAR entry causes an IOException to be thrown.
See Also

public Certificate[] getCertificates ()

Return the Certificate object for this connection if the URL for it points to a JAR file entry, null otherwise. This method can only be called once the connection has been completely verified by reading from the input stream until the end of the stream has been reached. Otherwise, this method will return null

Returns
  • the Certificate object for this connection if the URL for it points to a JAR file entry, null otherwise.
Throws
IOException if getting the JAR entry causes an IOException to be thrown.
See Also

public String getEntryName ()

Return the entry name for this connection. This method returns null if the JAR file URL corresponding to this connection points to a JAR file and not a JAR file entry.

Returns
  • the entry name for this connection, if any.

public JarEntry getJarEntry ()

Return the JAR entry object for this connection, if any. This method returns null if the JAR file URL corresponding to this connection points to a JAR file and not a JAR file entry.

Returns
  • the JAR entry object for this connection, or null if the JAR URL for this connection points to a JAR file.
Throws
IOException if getting the JAR file for this connection causes an IOException to be thrown.

public abstract JarFile getJarFile ()

Return the JAR file for this connection.

Returns
  • the JAR file for this connection. If the connection is a connection to an entry of a JAR file, the JAR file object is returned
Throws
IOException if an IOException occurs while trying to connect to the JAR file for this connection.

public URL getJarFileURL ()

Returns the URL for the Jar file for this connection.

Returns
  • the URL for the Jar file for this connection.

public Attributes getMainAttributes ()

Returns the main Attributes for the JAR file for this connection.

Returns
  • the main Attributes for the JAR file for this connection.
Throws
IOException if getting the manifest causes an IOException to be thrown.

public Manifest getManifest ()

Returns the Manifest for this connection, or null if none.

Returns
  • the manifest object corresponding to the JAR file object for this connection.
Throws
IOException if getting the JAR file for this connection causes an IOException to be thrown.
See Also