GNU-style options for the Jar Tool

[Martin Buchholz]

A change such as this is reasonable and welcome.

The compatibility interface will need to be maintained forever, and
will continue to be the preferred interface for casual human use, the
same way that humans stubbornly prefer the non-standard "head -1".  So
I would not drop the old usage text.

Options such as -n are obscure and likely to only be used in scripts,
so maybe having a short form for '-n' is a bad idea?

On Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Chris Hegarty <chris.hegarty at oracle.com> wrote:
> GNU-style options for Jar Tool
>
> Prompted by the impending addition of new options for both multi-release jars
> and jigsaw, it became immediately obvious that we were running out of single
> characters that could be used to represent these new options. I'd like to
> propose an update to the Jar Tool CLI to accept GNU-style options ( all short
> forms being compatible with the existing current options ), so that we can
> evolve the CLI in a reasonable fashion going forward.
>
> For example:
>  # Create an archive called classes.jar with two class files:
>  jar --create --file classes.jar Foo.class Bar.class
>  # Create an archive using an existing manifest, with all the files in foo/:
>  jar --create --file classes.jar --manifest mymanifest -C foo/ .
>
> The complete output of '--help' can be seen below [*]
>
> Short forms are the same as existing current options.
>
> It was suggested over on jigsaw-dev that the help output could drop the
> compatibility interface. Only printing it if '--help:compatility', or similar.
>
> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~chegar/jartool.options/
>
> -Chris
>
> P.S. jigsaw and multi-release jars will add the current list of exiting
> options.
>
> [*]  ( there may be some formatting issue in email )
> $ ./jdk/bin/jar --help
> Usage: jar [OPTION...] [-C dir] files ...
> jar creates an archive for classes and resources, and can manipulate or
> restore individual classes or resources from an archive.
>
>  Examples:
>  # Create an archive called classes.jar with two class files:
>  jar --create --file classes.jar Foo.class Bar.class
>  # Create an archive using an existing manifest, with all the files in foo/:
>  jar --create --file classes.jar --manifest mymanifest -C foo/ .
>
>
>   Main operation mode:
>     -c, --create               Create the archive
>     -i, --generate-index=FILE  Generate index information for the specified jar
>                                archives
>     -t, --list                 List the table of contents for the archive
>     -u, --update               Update an existing jar archive
>     -x, --extract              Extract named (or all) files from the archive
>
>   Operation modifiers valid in any mode:
>
>     -C DIR,                    Change to the specified directory and include the
>                                following file
>     -f, --file=FILE            The archive file name
>     -v, --verbose              Generate verbose output on standard output
>
>    Operation modifiers valid only in create mode:
>     -n, --pack200              Perform Pack200 normalization after creating a
>                                new archive
>
>    Operation modifiers valid only in create and update mode:
>     -e, --main-class=CLASSNAME The application entry point for stand-alone
>                                applications bundled into a modular, or executable,
>                                jar archive
>     -m, --manifest=FILE        Include the manifest information from the given
>                                manifest file
>     -M, --no-manifest          Do not create a manifest file for the entries
>
>    Operation modifiers valid only in create, update, and generate-index mode:
>     -0, --no-compress          Store only; use no ZIP compression
>
>    Other options:
>     -?, --help                 give this help list
>         --version              print program version
>
>   Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or optional
>   for any corresponding short options.
>
>
> Compatibility Interface:
>
> Usage: jar {ctxui}[vfmn0PMe] [jar-file] [manifest-file] [entry-point] [-C dir] files ...
> Options:
>     -c  create new archive
>     -t  list table of contents for archive
>     -x  extract named (or all) files from archive
>     -u  update existing archive
>     -v  generate verbose output on standard output
>     -f  specify archive file name
>     -m  include manifest information from specified manifest file
>     -n  perform Pack200 normalization after creating a new archive
>     -e  specify application entry point for stand-alone application
>         bundled into an executable jar file
>     -0  store only; use no ZIP compression
>     -P  preserve leading '/' (absolute path) and ".." (parent directory) components from file names
>     -M  do not create a manifest file for the entries
>     -i  generate index information for the specified jar files
>     -C  change to the specified directory and include the following file
> If any file is a directory then it is processed recursively.
> The manifest file name, the archive file name and the entry point name are
> specified in the same order as the 'm', 'f' and 'e' flags.
>
> Example 1: to archive two class files into an archive called classes.jar:
>        jar cvf classes.jar Foo.class Bar.class
> Example 2: use an existing manifest file 'mymanifest' and archive all the
>            files in the foo/ directory into 'classes.jar':
>        jar cvfm classes.jar mymanifest -C foo/ .
>
>