JAR Documentation - JDK 5 Documentation v1.1.8, Java 2 SDK 英文文档

JAR - Java Archive

JAR (Java Archive) is a platform-independent file format that aggregates many files into one. Multiple Java applets and their requisite components (.class files, images and sounds) can be bundled in a JAR file and subsequently downloaded to a browser in a single HTTP transaction, greatly improving the download speed. The JAR format also supports compression, which reduces the file size, further improving the download time. In addition, the applet author can digitally sign individual entries in a JAR file to authenticate their origin. It is fully backward-compatible with existing applet code and is fully extensible, being written in Java.

JAR Guide

JAR Guide
Manifest Format Specification

JAR API Reference
(javadoc)

java.util.zip Package

JAR Tools

JAR tool - Java archive tool - (for Solaris) (for Windows)