What is JDK (Java Development Kit)?

JDK (Java Development Kit), also called Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) Development Kit, is a collection of tools for developing standard Java applications. JDK is provided by Oracle.

JDK contains the following tools:

• appletviewer – this tool can be used to run and debug Java applets without a web browser
• apt – the annotation-processing tool.
• extcheck – a utility that detects JAR file conflicts
• idlj – the IDL-to-Java compiler. This utility generates Java bindings from a given Java IDL file.
• jabswitch – the Java Access Bridge. Exposes assistive technologies on Microsoft Windows systems.
• java – the loader for Java applications. This tool is an interpreter and can interpret the class files generated by the javac compiler. Now a single launcher is used for both development and deployment. The old deployment launcher, jre, no longer comes with Sun JDK, and instead it has been replaced by this new java loader.
• javac – the Java compiler, which converts source code into Java bytecode
• javadoc – the documentation generator, which automatically generates documentation from source code comments
• jar – the archiver, which packages related class libraries into a single JAR file. This tool also helps manage JAR files.
• javafxpackager – tool to package and sign JavaFX applications
• jarsigner – the jar signing and verification tool
• javah – the C header and stub generator, used to write native methods
• javap – the class file disassembler
• javaws – the Java Web Start launcher for JNLP applications
• JConsole – Java Monitoring and Management Console
• jdb – the debugger
• jmc – Java Mission Control
• jrunscript – Java command-line script shell.
• jshell - The new jshell introduced in java 9.
• keytool – tool for manipulating the keystore
• pack200 – JAR compression tool
• policytool – the policy creation and management tool, which can determine policy for a Java runtime, specifying which permissions are available for code from various sources.
• VisualVM – visual tool integrating several command-line JDK tools and lightweight[clarification needed] performance and memory profiling capabilities
• wsimport – generates portable JAX-WS artifacts for invoking a web service.

For more information on JDK, see Java SE at a Glance.

⇒ Release History of JDK

⇐ Understanding JDK (Java Development Kit)

⇑ Understanding JDK (Java Development Kit)

⇑⇑ FAQ for JDK (Java Development Kit)