Get a File or URI object for a file inside an archive with Java?

Question

is it possible to get a File or URI object for a file inside an archive with Java? (zip or jar archive)

Thanks Hemeroc.

Answer 1

The jar: protocol is a way to build a URI to a resource in a JAR archive:

jar:http://www.example.com/bar/baz.jar!/path/to/file

See the API docs for JarURLConnection: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/net/JarURLConnection.html

Between the jar: and !/ can be any URL, including a file: URL.

Answer 2

public List<File> getFilesInJar(String jarName){    
  List<File> result = new ArrayList<File>();
  File jarFile = new File(jarName);    
  JarInputStream jarFile = new JarInputStream(new FileInputStream(jarFile));
  JarEntry jarEntry;

  while ((jarEntry = jarFile.getNextJarEntry()) != null) {
    result.add(inputStreamToFile(jarFile.getInputStream(jarEntry)));
  }
  return result;
}

for the inputStreamToFile method, google "java inputStream to file", although you might be happy with an InputStream object also, instead of a File object :)