JMOD(1)

🦋 jmod manual page (JMOD(1)) 🦋

okay bestie, welcome to the jmod page from the JDK Commands corner — yes, this is JMOD(1), and we're gonna make it make sense. Let's go. 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

jmod — create JMOD files and list the content of existing JMOD files.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

jmod (create|extract|list|describe|hash) [options] jmod-file

Includes the following:

💅 Main operation modes

• create — Creates a new JMOD archive file.
• extract — Extracts all the files from the JMOD archive file.
• list — Prints the names of all the entries.
• describe — Prints the module details.
• hash — Determines leaf modules and records the hashes of the dependencies that directly and indirectly require them.

🎀 Options

• options — See Options for jmod.

🫶 Required

• jmod-file — Specifies the name of the JMOD file to create or from which to retrieve information.

🧚 DESCRIPTION 🧚

⚠️ Note: For most development tasks, including deploying modules on the module path or publishing them to a Maven repository, continue to package modules in modular JAR files. The jmod tool is intended for modules that have native libraries or other configuration files or for modules that you intend to link, with the jlink tool, to a runtime image.

The JMOD file format lets you aggregate files other than .class files, metadata, and resources. This format is transportable but not executable, which means that you can use it during compile time or link time but not at run time.

Many jmod options involve specifying a path whose contents are copied into the resulting JMOD files. These options copy all the contents of the specified path, including subdirectories and their contents, but exclude files whose names match the pattern specified by the --exclude option.

With the --hash-modules option or the jmod hash command, you can, in each module's descriptor, record hashes of the content of the modules that are allowed to depend upon it, thus "tying" together these modules. This enables a package to be exported to one or more specifically-named modules and to no others through qualified exports. The runtime verifies if the recorded hash of a module matches the one resolved at run time; if not, the runtime returns an error.

🔥 OPTIONS FOR JMOD 🔥

• --class-path path — Specifies the location of application JAR files or a directory containing classes to copy into the resulting JMOD file.
• --cmds path — Specifies the location of native commands to copy into the resulting JMOD file.
• --compress compress — Specifies the compression to use in creating the JMOD file. The accepted values are zip-[0-9], where zip-0 provides no compression, and zip-9 provides the best compression. Default is zip-6.
• --config path — Specifies the location of user-editable configuration files to copy into the resulting JMOD file.
• --dateTIMESTAMP — The timestamp in ISO-8601 extended offset date-time with optional time-zone format, to use for the timestamp of the entries, e.g. "2022-02-12T12:30:00-05:00".
• --dir path — Specifies the location where jmod puts extracted files from the specified JMOD archive.
• --dry-run — Performs a dry run of hash mode. It identifies leaf modules and their required modules without recording any hash values.
• --exclude pattern-list — Excludes files matching the supplied comma-separated pattern list, each element using one the following forms:
  • glob-pattern
  • glob:glob-pattern
  • regex:regex-pattern — See the FileSystem.getPathMatcher method for the syntax of glob-pattern. See the Pattern class for the syntax of regex-pattern, which represents a regular expression.
• --hash-modules regex-pattern — Determines the leaf modules and records the hashes of the dependencies directly and indirectly requiring them, based on the module graph of the modules matching the given regex-pattern. The hashes are recorded in the JMOD archive file being created, or a JMOD archive or modular JAR on the module path specified by the jmod hash command.
• --header-files path — Specifies the location of header files to copy into the resulting JMOD file.
• --help or -h — Prints a usage message.
• --help-extra — Prints help for extra options.
• --legal-notices path — Specifies the location of legal notices to copy into the resulting JMOD file.
• --libs path — Specifies location of native libraries to copy into the resulting JMOD file.
• --main-class class-name — Specifies main class to record in the module-info.class file.
• --man-pages path — Specifies the location of man pages to copy into the resulting JMOD file.
• --module-version module-version — Specifies the module version to record in the module-info.class file.
• --module-path path or -p path — Specifies the module path. This option is required if you also specify --hash-modules.
• --target-platform platform — Specifies the target platform of a JMOD file intended for a specific operating system and architecture. The value should follow the format <os>-<arch>, where <os> is the operating system and <arch> is the hardware architecture. Example values include linux-amd64, windows-amd64, and macos-aarch64.
• --version — Prints version information of the jmod tool.
• @filename — Reads options from the specified file. An options file is a text file that contains the options and values that you would ordinarily enter in a command prompt. Options may appear on one line or on several lines. You may not specify environment variables for path names. You may comment out lines by prefixing a hash symbol (#) to the beginning of the line. The following is an example of an options file for the jmod command:

#Wed Dec 07 00:40:19 EST 2016
create --class-path mods/com.greetings --module-path mlib
  --cmds commands --config configfiles --header-files src/h
  --libs lib --main-class com.greetings.Main
  --man-pages man --module-version 1.0
  --target-platform "macos-aarch64" greetingsmod

🌈 EXTRA OPTIONS FOR JMOD 🌈

In addition to the options described in Options for jmod, the following are extra options that can be used with the command.

• --do-not-resolve-by-default — Exclude from the default root set of modules.
• --warn-if-resolved — Hint for a tool to issue a warning if the module is resolved. One of deprecated, deprecated-for-removal, or incubating.

👑 JMOD CREATE EXAMPLES 👑

Create a JMOD file containing only compiled classes:

jmod create --class-path build/foo/classes jmods/foo1.jmod

Create a JMOD file specifying the date for the entries as 2022 March 15 00:00:00:

jmod create --class-path build/foo/classes --date 2022-03-15T00:00:00Z
   jmods/foo2.jmod

Create a JMOD file bundling compiled classes, native commands, configuration files, header files, native libraries, man pages, and metadata including the main class, module version, and target platform details:

jmod create --class-path mods/com.greetings --cmds commands
  --config configfiles --header-files src/h --libs lib
  --man-pages man --main-class com.greetings.Main --module-version 1.0
  --target-platform "macos-aarch64" greetingsmod

💖 JMOD HASH EXAMPLE 💖

Okay bestie, this one's a whole story. 🍓 It shows you exactly what happens when you try to link a leaf module (in this example, ma) with a required module (in this example, mb), and the hash value recorded in the required module doesn't match the one in the leaf module. Drama. 💀

---

1. Create and compile the following .java files:
   • jmodhashex/src/ma/module-info.java

module ma {
  requires mb;
}

• jmodhashex/src/mb/module-info.java

module mb {
}

• jmodhashex2/src/ma/module-info.java

module ma {
  requires mb;
}

• jmodhashex2/src/mb/module-info.java

module mb {
}

2. Create a JMOD archive for each module. ✨ First make the directories jmodhashex/jmods and jmodhashex2/jmods, then run these from the jmodhashex directory, and then from the jmodhashex2 directory:
   • jmod create --class-path mods/ma jmods/ma.jmod
   • jmod create --class-path mods/mb jmods/mb.jmod
3. Optionally preview the jmod hash command 👀 — run this from the jmodhashex directory:

jmod hash --dry-run -module-path jmods --hash-modules .*

The command prints the following:

Dry run:
mb
  hashes ma SHA-256 07667d5032004b37b42ec2bb81b46df380cf29e66962a16481ace2e71e74073a

Which is basically the universe telling you: this is what the jmod hash command (without the --dry-run option) will do — it'll record the hash value of the leaf module ma in the module mb. No cap. 🫶

4. Record hash values in the JMOD archive files contained in the jmodhashex directory. Run this from the jmodhashex directory:

jmod hash --module-path jmods --hash-modules .*

The command prints the following:

Hashes are recorded in module mb

Slay, it's official. 💅

5. Print information about each JMOD archive contained in the jmodhashex directory. Run the highlighted commands from the jmodhashex directory:

jmod describe jmods/ma.jmod

ma
  requires mandated java.base
  requires mb

jmod describe jmods/mb.jmod

mb
  requires mandated java.base
  hashes ma SHA-256 07667d5032004b37b42ec2bb81b46df380cf29e66962a16481ace2e71e74073a

See that? mb is out here carrying the hash like a little handwritten receipt. 🧚

6. Attempt to create a runtime image that contains the module ma from the directory jmodhashex2, but the module mb from the directory jmodhashex. Run the following command from the jmodhashex2 directory:
   • Linux and macOS:

jlink --module-path $JAVA_HOME/jmods:jmods/ma.jmod:../jmodhashex/jmods/mb.jmod --add-modules ma --output ma-app

• Windows:

jlink --module-path %JAVA_HOME%/jmods;jmods/ma.jmod;../jmodhashex/jmods/mb.jmod --add-modules ma --output ma-app

The command prints an error message similar to the following:

Error: Hash of ma (a2d77889b0cb067df02a3abc39b01ac1151966157a68dc4241562c60499150d2) differs to
expected hash (07667d5032004b37b42ec2bb81b46df380cf29e66962a16481ace2e71e74073a) recorded in mb

Bestie, read that error carefully. The hash of ma is different from the expected hash recorded in mb. That's the mismatch doing its whole main character thing. 😭 Nobody's getting linked today.

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And that's the teaaa. ☕ This page is from JDK 27.0.1.0.3, dated 2026, and it's the JMOD(1) manual page — go forth and hash responsibly, icon. 💜🌸