Find a jar file given the class name?

Question

This must be a very basic question for Java developers, but what is the best way to find the appropriate jar file given a class name?

For example, give

Answer 1

To search all jars under the current directory and return the one(s) that contain class a.b.c.D do a:

find . -iname *.jar | while read JARF; do jar tvf $JARF | grep a/b/c/D.class && echo $JARF ; done

It will report all instances of class a.b.c.D (or classes with a similar suffix) and will only print the jars that contain it.

Typical output:

$ find . -iname *.jar | while read JARF; do jar tvf $JARF | grep Log.class && echo $JARF ; done
479 Fri Oct 10 18:19:40 PDT 2003 org/apache/commons/logging/Log.class
3714 Fri Oct 10 18:19:40 PDT 2003 org/apache/commons/logging/impl/Log4JCategoryLog.class
1963 Fri Oct 10 18:19:40 PDT 2003 org/apache/commons/logging/impl/NoOpLog.class
9065 Fri Oct 10 18:19:40 PDT 2003 org/apache/commons/logging/impl/SimpleLog.class
./WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/commons-logging.jar