What version of javac built my jar?

Question

How can I tell what version of the Java compiler was used to build a jar? I have a jar file, and it could have been built in any one of three JDKs. We need to know exactly

Answer 1

I as well wrote my own bash script to dump the Java version required by all the jars passed at the command line... Mine is a bit rough, but works for me ;-)

example usage

$ jar_dump_version_of_jvm_required.sh *.jar
JVM VERSION REQUIRED: 46.0, /private/tmp/jars/WEB-INF/lib/json-simple-1.1.jar
JVM VERSION REQUIRED: 49.0, /private/tmp/jars/WEB-INF/lib/json-smart-1.1.1.jar
JVM VERSION REQUIRED: 50.0, /private/tmp/jars/WEB-INF/lib/jsontoken-1.0.jar
JVM VERSION REQUIRED: 50.0, /private/tmp/jars/WEB-INF/lib/jsr166y-1.7.0.jar

jar_dump_version_of_jvm_required.sh

#!/bin/bash

DIR=$(PWD)
function show_help()
{
  ME=$(basename $0)
  IT=$(cat <  VERSION: 50.0     myFile.jar

  Java versions are:
  54 = Java 10
  53 = Java 9
  52 = Java 8
  51 = Java 7
  50 = Java 6
  49 = Java 5
  48 = Java 1.4
  47 = Java 1.3
  46 = Java 1.2
  45.3 = Java 1.1

EOF
  )
  echo "$IT"
  exit
}

if [ "$1" == "help" ]
then
  show_help
fi
if [ -z "$1" ]
then
  show_help
fi

function unzipJarToTmp()
{
  JAR=$1
  CLASS_FILE=$(jar -tf "$JAR" | grep \.class$ | grep -v '\$' | head -n1 | awk '{print $NF}')
  OUT_FILE="$CLASS_FILE"
  #echo "J=$JAR C=$CLASS_FILE O=$OUT_FILE"
  jar xf "$JAR" "$CLASS_FILE"

  MAJOR=$(javap -v "$OUT_FILE" 2>&1 | grep major | awk -F' ' '{print $3'})
  MINOR=$(javap -v "$OUT_FILE" 2>&1 | grep minor | awk -F' ' '{print $3'})
  if [ -z "$MAJOR" ]
  then
    echo "JVM VERSION REQUIRED: NA as no classes in $JAR"
  else
    echo "JVM VERSION REQUIRED: $MAJOR.$MINOR, $JAR"
  fi
}

# loop over cmd line args
for JAR in "$@"
do
  cd "$DIR"
  JAR_UID=$(basename "$JAR" | sed s/.jar//g)
  TMPDIR=/tmp/jar_dump/$JAR_UID/
  mkdir -p "$TMPDIR"
  JAR_ABS_PATH=$(realpath $JAR)

  cd "$TMPDIR"

  #echo "$JAR_ABS_PATH"
  unzipJarToTmp "$JAR_ABS_PATH"
  #sleep 2
done