Making a Java Package thomasalspaugh.org/pub/fnd/java-package.html

To make a Java package named pkg:

1. Make a directory named pkg. 
2. Put all the .java files for the classes and interfaces in the directory pkg. 
3. Begin each of the .java files with a package declaration: 

   package pkg;

4. Compile the files by running javac from pkg's parent directory.  For example,

   javac pkg/*.java

5. Access the classes and interfaces of package pkg from other packages by importing its definitions with an import line in every .java file that uses them: 

   import pkg;

6. Tell the Java interpreter how to find package pkg by putting pkg's parent directory on the classpath, or by running the interpreter from that directory.  If the full or relative pathname of pkg's parent directory is pname, then java -cp pname ... will put pname on the classpath and make package pkg accessible.  If you have several packages in different parent directories, separate the names with colons:  java -cp pname:name2:dir3 .... 

Here is an example package.  The package is named formula, its source files are in a directory named formula, and each source file begins with

package formula;

Making a Java subpackage

A subpackage is just a package in a subdirectory of another package's directory.  Java uses dot as the package name separator, like / is used as the directory separator (for civilized operating systems, at least).  For example, to make a subpackage subp of the package pkg: 

1. Make a subdirectory named subp in the pkg directory. 
2. Put all the .java files for the classes and interfaces in the directory pkg/subp. 
3. Begin each .java file with a package declaration: 

   package pkg.subp;

4. Compile the files by running javac from pkg's parent directory (just as before).  For example,

   javac pkg/subp/*.java

5. Access the classes and interfaces of package subp from other packages including pkg) by importing its definitions with an import line in every .java file that uses them: 

   import pkg.subp;

6. You don't need to do anything different to tell the Java interpreter how to find package pkg.subp, since you are already telling it to look in pkg's parent directory. 

Although it may seem like pkg and subp should have easier or simpler access to each other because one is a subpackage of the other, this is not the case.  Either package's files have to import the other package to use it, just like any other package's files do.

The convention for names of published packages

It doesn't much matter what you name your own packages, as long as the names are unique.  For published packages, there is a convention for unique names that uses a URL associated with you, the package, or the project it is part of.  The components of the URL are used as package names, in reverse order.  For example, for the ScenarioML project whose associated URL is http://scenarioml.ics.uci.edu, each package would be a subpackage of edu.uci.ics.scenarioml.  The scenario package for that project would have this as its package name: 

edu.uci.ics.scenarioml.scenario

and its source files would have to be in a directory named

edu/uci/ics/scenarioml/scenario

jar and packages

To produce a jarfile for one or more packages, go to the parent directory from which you would compile the source files, and run jar giving it all the class file names.  For example, for the scenario package discussed above, you would go to the directory containing the edu directory and enter the command

jar cf jarfname edu/uci/ics/scenarioml/scenario/*.class

and would obtain a jarfile named jarfname.jar which you could put on a classpath and thus gain access to the scenario package.

Thomas A. Alspaugh alspaugh  at · ics · uci · edu