Understanding the MANIFEST.MF

[url]http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/deployment/jar/defman.html[/url]

[b]pathname[/b]
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

[b]only one manifest file in an archive[/b]

[b]form of "header: value" pairs[/b]
[color=red]Manifest-Version: 1.0[/color]

[b]JDK 1.1 manifest has entries for each file contained in the archive[/b]
[quote]Manifest-Version: 1.0

Name: java/math/BigDecimal.class
SHA1-Digest: TD1GZt8G11dXY2p4olSZPc5Rj64=
MD5-Digest: z6z8xPj2AW/Q9AkRSPF0cg==

Name: java/math/BigInteger.class
SHA1-Digest: oBmrvIkBnSxdNZzPh5iLyF0S+bE=
MD5-Digest: wFymhDKjNreNZ4AzDWWg1Q==
[/quote]

Special-Purpose Manifest Headers

[b]Applications Bundled as JAR Files[/b]
(Recall that the entry point is the class having a method with signature public static void main(String[] args).)

[color=red]Main-Class: MyPackage.MyClass[/color]

[b]Download Extensions[/b]
[color=red]Class-Path: jar1-name jar2-name directory-name/jar3-name[/color]

[color=red]Warning[/color]: The text file must end with a new line or carriage return. The last line will not be parsed properly if it does not end with a new line or carriage return.