JAR files (was Re: XML and Objects)

Leonard Rosenthol (leonardr@Adobe.COM)
Thu, 8 Oct 1998 16:31:26 -0400

At 1:23 AM +0000 9/29/98, Chris Hubick wrote:
>> The Java ARchive (JAR) format has manifests at the very beginning,
>> so that the correct digital signatures can be computed during download.
>
> A JAR file is a Zip file.
>
Actually, no they aren't.

If you read the JAR specification, the actual format of the archive
is NOT specified. Only the existance of the manifest file & directory and
it's content.

It is only by existing usage that currently available .jar files
happen to use the ZIP archiving format.

Leonard
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leonard Rosenthol <mailto:leonardr@adobe.com>
Designated Free Electron (612) 766-4718 (Minn)
Adobe Systems Incorporated (215) 233-5270 (Philly)

PGP Fingerprint: 8CC9 8878 921E C627 0BC1 15BB FC19 64A9 0016 1397