serialver(1)

💅 serialver(1) 💅

okay so real talk: this page is from the Remote Method Invocation (RMI) Tools manual, and it’s here to explain serialver, bestie. no cap, it’s giving “useful little utility that tells you the serialVersionUID.” 💖

💖 NAME 💖

serialver — returns the serial version UID for the classes you specify. periodt. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

serialver [ options ] [ classnames ]

• options — the command-line options, bestie. see OPTIONS.
• classnames — the classes for which the serialVersionUID is to be returned. yep, those ones. 🎀

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

The serialver command returns the serialVersionUID for one or more classes, and it formats it in a form suitable for copying into an evolving class. literal copy-paste energy, but make it class evolution. 🦋

When you call it with no arguments, the serialver command prints a usage line. no drama, just a lil usage reminder. 💅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -classpath path-files — sets the search path for application classes and resources. separate classes and resources with a colon (:). colon, not vibes. 🙈
• -show — displays a simple user interface. enter the full class name and press either the Enter key or the Show button to display the serialVersionUID. cute lil GUI moment 🫶
• -Joption — passes option to the Java Virtual Machine, where option is one of the options described on the reference page for the Java application launcher. for example, -J-Xms48m sets the startup memory to 48 MB. see java(1). 🔥

🦋 NOTES 🦋

The serialver command loads and initializes the specified classes in its virtual machine, and by default, it does not set a security manager. 😭

If the serialver command is to be run with untrusted classes, then a security manager can be set with the following option:

-J-Djava.security.manager

When necessary, a security policy can be specified with the following option:

-J-Djava.security.policy=<policy file>

untrusted classes? yes bestie, that’s the cue to actually think about the security manager / policy options above. don’t just vibe check and ignore it. ⚠️

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• policytool(1)
• The java.io.ObjectStream class description at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/io/ObjectStreamClass.html

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xoxo, your JDK 8 bestie 💖 — source/version: JDK 8, page date: 21 November 2013, and the manual page is serialver(1) 🫶