How to Extract Source Code From Jar File in Eclipse

11 Answers 11

Use JD GUI. Open the application, drag and drop your JAR file into it.

Raekye

4,863 8 gold badges 45 silver badges 72 bronze badges

answered Feb 24 '11 at 16:08

adarshradarshr

58.2k 21 gold badges 133 silver badges 161 bronze badges

2

• is there a way to get source code from .jar without JD GUI ?

  Oct 7 '16 at 5:24

• @ZulqurnainJutt use as mentioned in @elachance's answer jar xf filename.jar

  Sep 14 '18 at 4:45

Jeromy French

11.6k 14 gold badges 69 silver badges 123 bronze badges

answered Sep 24 '12 at 16:18

elachanceelachance

841 6 silver badges 5 bronze badges

3

• This is equivalent to renaming filename.jar to filename.jar.zip and then just unzipping it.

  Mar 5 '14 at 9:16

• This doesn't extract the source code. It extracts the compiled source code.

  Jul 22 '15 at 20:35

• @caffinatedmonkey it does extract source code when the jar contains java files, e.g. jars with names typically ending in "-sources". It indeed does only extract .class files when the jar does not contain any java source files.

  May 2 '16 at 9:04

I believe this can be done very easily. You can always extract the source files (Java files) of a jar file into a zip.

Steps to get sources of a jar file as a zip :

1. Download JAD from http://techieme.in/resources-needed/ and save it at any
   location on your system.
2. Drag and drop the jar for which you want the sources on the JAD. 3 JAD UI will open with all the package structure in a tree format.
3. Click on File menu and select save jar sources.
4. It will save the sources as a zip with the same name as the jar.

Hope this helps.

The link is dead due to some reason so adding the link from where you can download the JDGUI

answered May 19 '13 at 8:20

dharamdharam

7,485 15 gold badges 60 silver badges 88 bronze badges

3

• @Nitesh... I will be posting the link hosted on my website... please download it from there

  Aug 28 '13 at 11:28

• The version in the techieme link works beautifully, thank you!

  Jul 28 '15 at 15:59

• After saving all sources, when I open the Java files, it shows all the lines as commented lines. Is there any setting to fix that?

  Jul 23 '20 at 10:39

Your JAR may contain source and javadoc, in which case you can simply use jar xf my.jar to extract them.

Otherwise you can use a decompiler as mentioned in adarshr's answer:

Use JD GUI. Open the application, drag and drop your JAR file into it.

answered Feb 24 '11 at 16:17

Matthew WillisMatthew Willis

44.3k 10 gold badges 96 silver badges 87 bronze badges

1

• Note that .jar files are actually .zip files and can be opened with any ZIP tool.

  Feb 24 '11 at 17:50

I know it's an old question Still thought it would help someone

1) Go to your jar file's folder.

2) change it's extension to .zip.

3) You are good to go and can easily extract it by just double clicking it.

Note: I tested this in MAC, it works. Hopefully it will work on windows too.

answered Feb 12 '14 at 12:26

keenkeen

2,891 3 gold badges 31 silver badges 58 bronze badges

4

• @JCodex, I'm doing a research project on the sentiment analysis tool "opinionfinder" and its jar does indeed contain both java AND class files. so your comment is not 100% true. I know it would usually contain only .class but not in this case at least

  Mar 4 '15 at 10:36

• Your solution will only extract .class files not the source code.

  Sep 1 '17 at 9:46

• Seems JD-GUI is a multi-platform tool that actually decompiles the code and shows the source code for classes in all packages. I tried it and could get the source code in a second in MacOS. I have Java 8 installed . You can get it on jd.benow.ca Not sure if it works for large projects.

  Sep 1 '17 at 10:03

• need source code which is not provide by the way you described

  Jun 28 '19 at 10:53

Do the following on your linux box where java works (if u like the terminal way of doing things)

                cd ~ mkdir decompiled_code && cd decompiled_code wget https://bitbucket.org/mstrobel/procyon/downloads/procyon-decompiler-0.5.36.jar java -jar procyon-decompiler-0.5.36.jar /Path/to/your/jar -o .                              

NOTE : as @Richard commented "this may be illegal depending on whether you own the copyright to the jar, the country you live in and your purpose for doing it."

answered Nov 5 '19 at 13:04

1

• For a specific class file you can do java -jar procyon-decompiler-0.5.36.jar /Path/to/your/jar package/of/the/java/class.class > className.java

  Jan 6 at 6:40

Steps to get sources of a jar file as a zip :

1. Download JD-GUI from http://java-decompiler.github.io/ and save it at any location on your system.

2. Drag and drop the jar or open .jar file for which you want the sources on the JD.

3. Java Decompiler will open with all the package structure in a tree format.

4. Click on File menu and select save jar sources. It will save the sources as a zip with the same name as the jar.

Example:-

We can use Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers as well for update/extract code if require.

From eclipse chose Import Jar and then select jar which you need. Follow instruction as per image below

answered Nov 3 '20 at 18:00

PragsPrags

2,351 2 gold badges 19 silver badges 36 bronze badges

AndroChef Java Decompiler produces very good code that you can use directly in your projects...

answered May 3 '14 at 2:59

Above tools extract the jar. Also there are certain other tools and commands to extract the jar. But AFAIK you cant get the java code in case code has been obfuscated.

answered Mar 4 '14 at 9:49

VishalVishal

335 2 silver badges 18 bronze badges

1

• The greatest answer

  Jul 8 '16 at 6:19

suppose your JAR file is in C:\Documents and Settings\mmeher\Desktop\jar and the JAR file name is xx.jar, then write the below two commands in command prompt:

1> cd C:\Documents and Settings\mmeher\Desktop\jar

2> jar xf xx.jar

answered Jan 31 '14 at 11:18

0

-Covert .jar file to .zip (In windows just change the extension) -Unzip the .zip folder -You will get complete .java files

answered May 12 '17 at 18:37

Pavan TPavan T

688 8 silver badges 12 bronze badges

2

• As a small note on this method... It is true that jar files are fancy zip files. However, unziping a jar will most likely yield *.class files, that is "compiled" java files. It is possible to "decompile" class files to normal java files. This functionality is included in many IDEs

  May 21 '18 at 13:38

• this will just unlock class files

  Feb 21 '19 at 11:06

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged java jar java-me decompiling or ask your own question.

How to Extract Source Code From Jar File in Eclipse

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5107187/extract-source-code-from-jar-file

Share this post