These guidelines are laid out in order of relevance to packaging.
Introduction
The Basics
The term Java means many things to many people: a class library, a bytecode interpreter, a JIT compiler, a language specification, etc. For the vast majority of users and developers, Java is a programming language and runtime environment that is architecture- and OS-agnostic. The normal flow of code is .java (source file) .class (Java bytecode) .jar (a zip archive). In the majority of cases, a user executes a Java program by specifying a class name containing a main method (just like C and C++). Often, this is done by invoking the java binary with a list of JAR files specifying the classpath like so:
java [-cp <jar1:jar2:jar3>] <main-class> [<args>]
Java Packaging
The JPackage Project has defined standard file system locations and conventions for use in Java packages. Many distributions have inherited these conventions and in the vast majority of cases, Fedora follows them verbatim. We include relevant sections of the JPackage guidelines here but caution that the canonical document will always reside upstream: JPackage Guidelines . Over time, we would like to remove any divergences in these documents, but where they are different, these Fedora guidelines will take precedence for Fedora packages.
TODO: Find the proper jpackage link and fix it.
Package naming
Packages MUST follow the standard Fedora Packaging/NamingGuidelines.
Java API documentation MUST be placed into a sub-package called %{name}-javadoc.
Release tags
Packages MUST follow the standard Fedora Package versioning guidelines .
JAR file installation
The following applies to all JAR files except JNI-using JAR files, GCJ files and application-specific JAR files (ie. JAR files that can only reasonably be used as part of an application and therefore constitute application-private data).
Split JAR files
If a project offers the choice of packaging it as a single monolithic jar or several ones, the split packaging should be preferred.
Filenames
- If the package provides a single JAR and the filename provided by the build is
%{name}.jaror%{name}-%{version}.jarthen filename%{name}.jarMUST be used. - If the package provides a single JAR and the filename provided by the build is neither
%{name}-%{version}.jarnor%{name}.jarthen this file MUST be installed as%{name}.jarand a symbolic link with the usual name must be provided. - If the package provides more than one JAR file, the filenames assigned by the build MUST be used (without versions).
- If the project usually provides alternative JAR file names by installing symbolic links then such symlinks MAY be installed in the same directory as the JAR files.
Installation directory
- All JAR files MUST go into
%{_javadir}or a Java-version specific directory%{_javadir}-*as appropriate[1].
- If the number of provided JAR files exceeds two, you MUST place them into a sub-directory named
%{name}.
Javadoc installation
- Java API documentation uses a system known as javadoc. All javadocs MUST be created and installed into a directory of
%{_javadocdir}/%{name}. - Directory or symlink
%{_javadocdir}/%{name}-%{version}SHOULD NOT exist. - The javadoc subpackage MUST be declared
noarcheven if main package is architecture specific.
BuildRequires and Requires
At a minimum, Java packages MUST:
BuildRequires: java-devel [>= specific_version] BuildRequires: jpackage-utils Requires: java >= specific_version Requires: jpackage-utils
For historical reasons, when specifying versions 1.6.0 or greater, an epoch of 1 must be included. Example:
Requires: java >= 1:1.6.0
build-classpath
build-classpath is a script that can be used to generate classpaths from generic names of JAR files. Example:
export CLASSPATH=$(build-classpath commons-logging commons-net xbean/xbean-reflect)
You can use either package names (all jar files will be included) or jar filenames with path prefix to select only some jar files from whole package.
build-jar-repository
build-jar-repository is similar to build-classpath but instead of producing a classpath entry, it creates symlinks in a given directory. Example:
$ mkdir lib $ build-jar-repository -s -p lib commons-logging commons-net $ ls -l lib commons-logging.jar -> /usr/share/java/commons-logging.jar commons-net.jar -> /usr/share/java/commons-net.jar
ant
ant is a build tool used by many Java packages. Packages built using ant ship with build.xml files which contain build targets similar to Makefiles. Packages built using ant must:
BuildRequires: ant ... %build ... ant
maven
maven is a tool used by many Java packages. In Fedora, the package is called maven2. Packages built using maven ship with pom.xml files. They MUST:
Requires(post): jpackage-utils Requires(postun): jpackage-utils
and SHOULD contain common sections such as the following:
...
%build
export MAVEN_REPO_LOCAL=$(pwd)/.m2/repository
mkdir -p $MAVEN_REPO_LOCAL
mvn-jpp \
-Dmaven.repo.local=$MAVEN_REPO_LOCAL \
install javadoc:javadoc
...
%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
install -d -m 755 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadir}
install -d -m 755 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_mavenpomdir}
install -pm 644 pom.xml $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{_mavenpomdir}/JPP-package-name.pom
# artifactId and jarName are usually %{name} for single module projects
%add_to_maven_depmap [groupId] [artifactId] %{version} JPP[/optional_subDir] [jarName]
...
%post
%update_maven_depmap
%postun
%update_maven_depmap
...
Multimodule Maven projects should use javadoc:aggregate instead of javadoc:javadoc.
Please read Java/JPPMavenReadme for details about mvn-jpp and %add_to_maven_depmap usage.
Wrapper Scripts
Applications wishing to provide a convenient method of execution SHOULD provide a wrapper script in %{_bindir}. These can be as simple as this example:
#!/bin/sh if [ -f /usr/share/java-utils/java-functions ] ; then . /usr/share/java-utils/java-functions else echo "Can't find functions library, aborting" exit 1 fi # Configuration MAIN_CLASS=MyCoolApp # Set parameters set_classpath "mycoolapp" # Let's start run "$@"
Specify your script as additional source
...
Source1: %{name}.jtidy.script
...
and install it into %{_bindir}
%install
...
# shell script
mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_bindir}
cp -ap %{SOURCE1} %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/%{name}
...
Don't forget set file permissions correctly:
%files
...
%attr(755, root, root) %{_bindir}/*
...
GCJ
Building GCJ AOT bits is discouraged unless you have a very strong reason to include them in the packages. Even when AOT bits are built and included in packages it is recommended to not require java-1.5.0-gcj because this will force every single user to install it even if one wants to use another JVM.
Please refer to Packaging/GCJGuidelines for GCJ-specific guidelines.
-devel packages
-devel packages don't really make sense for Java packages. Header files do not exist for Java packages.
Maven pom.xml files and depmaps
If upstream project is shipping Maven pom.xml files, these MUST be installed with the corresponding %add_to_maven_depmaps calls.
If upstream project does not ship pom.xml file [official maven repo] should be checked and if there are pom.xml files they SHOULD be installed.
[Mvnrepository site] can be used to ease
Specfile Template
ant
Name: # see normal package guidelines
Version: # see normal package guidelines
Release: 1%{?dist}
Summary: # see normal package guidelines
Group: # see normal package guidelines
License: # see normal package guidelines
URL: # see normal package guidelines
Source0: # see normal package guidelines
BuildArch: noarch
BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n)
BuildRequires: jpackage-utils
BuildRequires: java-devel
BuildRequires: ant
Requires: jpackage-utils
Requires: java
%description
%package javadoc
Summary: Javadocs for %{name}
Group: Documentation
Requires: jpackage-utils
%description javadoc
This package contains the API documentation for %{name}.
%prep
%setup -q
find -name '*.class' -exec rm -f '{}' \;
find -name '*.jar' -exec rm -f '{}' \;
%build
ant
%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadir}
cp -p [build path to jar] $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadir}/%{name}.jar
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadocdir}/%{name}
cp -rp [javadoc directory] $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadocdir}/%{name}
%clean
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%{_javadir}/*
%doc
%files javadoc
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%{_javadocdir}/%{name}
%changelog
maven
Name: # see normal package guidelines
Version: # see normal package guidelines
Release: 1%{?dist}
Summary: # see normal package guidelines
Group: # see normal package guidelines
License: # see normal package guidelines
URL: # see normal package guidelines
Source0: # see normal package guidelines
BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n)
BuildArch: noarch
BuildRequires: jpackage-utils
BuildRequires: java-devel
BuildRequires: maven2
BuildRequires: maven-compiler-plugin
BuildRequires: maven-install-plugin
BuildRequires: maven-jar-plugin
BuildRequires: maven-javadoc-plugin
BuildRequires: maven-release-plugin
BuildRequires: maven-resources-plugin
BuildRequires: maven-surefire-plugin
Requires: jpackage-utils
Requires(post): jpackage-utils
Requires(postun): jpackage-utils
Requires: java
%description
%package javadoc
Summary: Javadocs for %{name}
Group: Documentation
Requires: jpackage-utils
%description javadoc
This package contains the API documentation for %{name}.
%prep
%setup -q
%build
export MAVEN_REPO_LOCAL=$(pwd)/.m2/repository
mkdir -p $MAVEN_REPO_LOCAL
mvn-jpp -Dmaven.repo.local=$MAVEN_REPO_LOCAL \
install javadoc:javadoc # or javadoc:aggregate
%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadir}
cp -p [build path to jar] $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadir}/%{name}.jar
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadocdir}/%{name}
cp -rp [javadoc directory] $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_javadocdir}/%{name}
install -d -m 755 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_mavenpomdir}
install -pm 644 [path to pom] \
$RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_mavenpomdir}/JPP-%{name}.pom
%add_to_maven_depmap project_group_id project_artifact_id %{version} JPP %{name}
%clean
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
%post
%update_maven_depmap
%postun
%update_maven_depmap
%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%{_mavenpomdir}/*
%{_mavendepmapfragdir}/*
%{_javadir}/*
%doc
%files javadoc
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
%{_javadocdir}/%{name}
%changelog
Last two arguments to %add_to_maven_depmap macro represent location of installed jar file. Using ".. jpp/foo bar" as last two arguments will mean that groupId/artifactId of package will resolve to jar file %{_javadir}/foo/bar.jar.
For detailed instructions on the JPackage/Fedora maven, see the JPackage Maven rpm readme located here .
Packaging JAR files that use JNI
Applicability
Java programs that wish to make calls into native libraries do so via the Java Native Interface (JNI). A Java package uses JNI if it contains a .so
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Note that GCJ packages contain .sos in %{_libdir}/gcj/%{name} but they are not JNI .sos.
Guideline
JAR files that require JNI shared objects MUST be installed in %{_libdir}/%{name}. The JNI shared objects themselves must also be installed in %{_libdir}/%{name}. If the JNI-using code calls System.loadLibrary you'll have to patch it to use System.load, passing it the full path to the dynamic shared object. If the package installs a wrapper script you'll need to manually add %{_libdir}/%{name}/<jar filename> to CLASSPATH. If you are depending on a JNI-using JAR file, you'll need to add it manually -- build-classpath will not find it.
Rationale
This is less convenient, but cleaner from a packaging point-of-view, than putting the JAR file in %{_javadir}, and putting the JNI shared object in %{_libdir} to be loaded from the default library path. First, JNI shared objects are dlopen'd, and dlopen'd shared objects should not be placed directly in %{_libdir} since they are application-private data, and not libraries meant to be linked to directly -- that is, not meant to be shared. Second, placing the JAR file in %{_javadir} causes the build-classpath script to always load it, even when running on a runtime environment of the wrong arch, meaning that the System.loadLibrary line would fail.
The plan is to eventually eliminate patching of the System.loadLibrary line and wrapper script by making jpackage-utils multilib aware. This involves the following changes: creating %{_libdir}/java and %{_libdir}/jni directories; giving JNI-containing packages the ability to require an architecture-specific runtime environment; adding support for specifying the required runtime architecture in a wrapper script; modifying jpackage-utils's runtime scripts to search %{_libdir}/java; modifying IcedTea to look for JNI shared objects in %{_libdir}/jni.
The %{_jnidir} rpm macro defines the main JNI jar repository. Like %{_javadir} it is declined in -ext and -x.y.z variants. It follows exactly the same rules as the %{_javadir}-derived tree structure, except that it hosts JAR files that use JNI.
%{_jnidir} usually expands into /usr/lib/java.
Things to avoid
Pre-built JAR files / Other bundled software
Many Java projects re-ship their dependencies in their own releases. This is unacceptable in Fedora. All packages MUST be built from source and MUST enumerate their dependencies with Requires. They MUST NOT build against or re-ship the pre-included JAR files but instead symlink out to the JAR files provided by dependencies. There may arise rare cases that an upstream project is distributing JAR files that are actually not re-distributable
by Fedora. In this situation, the JAR files themselves should not be redistributed -- even in the source zip. A modified source zip should be created with some sort of modifier in the name (ex. -CLEAN) along with instructions for reproducing. It is a good idea to have something similar to the following at the end of %prep (courtesy David Walluck):
JAR files="" for j in $(find -name \*.jar); do if [ ! -L $j ] ; then JAR files="$JAR files $j" fi done if [ ! -z "$JAR files" ] ; then echo "These JAR files should be deleted and symlinked to system JAR files: $JAR files" exit 1 fi
Javadoc scriptlets
Older JPackage packages contained %post scriptlets creating %ghost symlinks. These MUST not appear in Fedora Java packages and are actively being removed at JPackage.
Selected rpmlint issues
class-path-in-manifest
Use sed to remove class-path elements in MANIFEST.MF (or whatever file is being used as the JAR manifest) prior to JAR creation. Example:
sed -i '/class-path/I d' META-INF/MANIFEST.MF