Programming Forums - Help with opensource program

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csrocker101

Dec 30th, 2007 2:39 PM

Help with opensource program

Hey everybody. I've been going onto Sourgeforge.net and similar open source code sites but have been having some problems. I have programmed in Java before but when I download these open source programs I don't understand how to get to the code. There are a whole bunch of .JAR files and don't know how to open them. Could anyone give me a step by step of how to open an open source Java program?

titaniumdecoy

Dec 30th, 2007 4:14 PM

Re: Help with opensource program

jar xf jar-file [archived-file(s)]

lectricpharaoh

Dec 30th, 2007 6:22 PM

Re: Help with opensource program

Java .jar files are just archive files, similar to .zip files. In fact, the formats are identical; the former just use a different extension.

The purpose of these is to pack multiple .class files along with a 'manifest' file that tells the computer which one to run. Then, when you double-click the .jar file or otherwise 'open' it on your system, if everything's set up properly, it should decompress the archive to a temporary location, and run the file specified in the manifest.

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