OSGi: What are the differences between Apache Felix and Apache Karaf?

Question

Apache Karaf is a sub project of Apache Felix. It is defined as \"a lightweight OSGi container\".

I don\'t understand when should I use the heavyweight and when to u

Answer 1

@Marcel Karaf isn't monolithic or huge like a Java EE server. It is a very slim and minimalist implementation. It is a core product without much functionality other than a basic console, file loading so that you can actually read configuration files, etc. The latest zip file of it is 19.1 MB. Yeah. Small. It can easily run on small devices and work in embedded.

What you may be thinking of is something more like ServiceMix which uses Karaf as a core/kernel. But it includes CXF, ActiveMQ, Camel and other libraries in its full configuration. Even then they have minimal, medium and full sizes.

Really, for 99% of the projects out there it wouldn't make sense to start directly with Felix and not use Karaf instead.