Comparing two .jar files

Question

How do I compare two .jar files? Both of them have compiled .class files.

I want the difference in terms of method changes, etc.

Answer 1

Here is my script to do the process described by sje397:

    #!/bin/sh

    # Needed if running on Windows
    FIND="/usr/bin/find"
    DIFF="diff -r"

    # Extract the jar (war or ear)
    JAR_FILE1=$1
    JAR_FILE2=$2

    JAR_DIR=${PWD}          # to assign to a variable
    TEMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d)

    echo "Extracting jars in $TEMP_DIR"

    EXT_DIR1="${TEMP_DIR}/${JAR_FILE1%.*}"
    EXT_DIR2="${TEMP_DIR}/${JAR_FILE2%.*}"

    mkdir ${EXT_DIR1}
    cd ${EXT_DIR1}
    jar xf ${JAR_DIR}/${JAR_FILE1}
    jad -d . -o -t2 -safe -space -b -ff -s java -r **/*.class
    cd ..

    mkdir ${EXT_DIR2}
    cd ${EXT_DIR2}
    jar xf ${JAR_DIR}/${JAR_FILE2}
    jad -d . -o -t2 -safe -space -b -ff -s java -r **/*.class
    cd ..

    # remove class files so the diff is clean
    ${FIND} ${TEMP_DIR} -name '*.class' | xargs rm

    # diff recursively 
    ${DIFF} ${EXT_DIR1} ${EXT_DIR2}

I can run it on Windows using GIT for Windows. Just open a command prompt. Run bash and then execute the script from there.