What is the difference between jar and war files

Furthermore, it makes it easier to move the JAR file over the network between different platforms. Figure 1: Adding Java Files. It allows creating new JAR files with a manifest file and extracting all the content of a JAR file onto the file system. A WAR file contains files related to a web project. A WAR file combines all the files into a single unit. Therefore, it takes a minimum amount of time to transfer a file from client to server.

It is usually for easier accessibility. This module contains EJB descriptor and Java beans class files. These are packaged with a. They are packaged as a. WAR files are used for web applications.

They are deployed to a JSP engine or to a servlet. It is most commonly used to package Java classes, but a lot of other things can be packaged as well. However, WAR files are specifically for web applications. WAR files can be made manually as well. WAR files are located in the web apps directory. WAR files may store different resources in different applications, which might create a hassle. To use files located in WAR files the user is required to unzip the folder. JAR and WAR files are two different file formats, they can be created manually but from different formats.

See wiki. Joby Wilson Mathews Joby Wilson Mathews 8, 3 3 gold badges 47 47 silver badges 45 45 bronze badges. Nice illustration! Crowder T. Crowder k gold badges silver badges bronze badges. A WAR usually contains other resources besides web components, including: Server-side utility classes database beans, shopping carts, and so on.

Community Bot 1 1 1 silver badge. So does this mean if you're building a server app that just uses sockets and doesn't have any UI there is no need to package it as a war file? Actually now I'm reading a bit more I don't need Tomcat, I can just export the jar to the server and run it directly from there. Justin Niessner Justin Niessner k 37 37 gold badges silver badges bronze badges.

The second statement is not necessarily true. A jar can also start an embedded web server, e. A jar can also just be a library of code to be used by other applications.

In other words it may not even contain a main class for running. KevinWelker agreed. Even in when this post was written a jar could still just represent a library. However, spring boot wasn't around so I can see overlooking the fact that you can embed a web server in a jar like whirlwind mentioned. Kevin Welker, not "not entirely", I would say "not all truth" as whirlwin just mentioned an exception, which is fully true, isn't it?

Vincent Ramdhanie Vincent Ramdhanie Haim Sulam Haim Sulam 1 1 silver badge 5 5 bronze badges. Animesh Jaiswal Animesh Jaiswal 1 1 silver badge 7 7 bronze badges.

War - distribute Java-based web applications. Jar - The.