How to decompile to java files intellij idea

Question

As of August 2017 and IntelliJ V2017.2, the accepted answer does not seem to be entirely accurate anymore: there is no fernflower.jar to use.

The jar file is called java-decompiler.jar and does not include a main manifest... Instead you can use the following command (from a Mac install):

java -cp "/Applications/IntelliJ IDEA.app/Contents/plugins/java-decompiler/lib/java-decompiler.jar" org.jetbrains.java.decompiler.main.decompiler.ConsoleDecompiler

(you will get the wrong Usage command, but it does work).

To use the IntelliJ Java decompiler from the command line for a jar package follow the instructions provided here: https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-community/tree/master/plugins/java-decompiler/engine

Follow instructions for IntelliJ JD plugin. Or see an excerpt from the instructions below.

java -jar fernflower.jar [<source>]+ <destination>

+ means 1 or more times
<source>: file or directory with files to be decompiled. Directories are recursively scanned. Allowed file extensions are class, zip and jar.
<destination>: destination directory

Example:

java -jar fernflower.jar -hdc=0 -dgs=1 -rsy=1 -lit=1 c:\Temp\binary\ -e=c:\Java\rt.jar c:\Temp\source\

Be aware that if you pass it a ".jar" file for the source, it will create another ".jar" file in the destination, however, within the new ".jar" file, the files will be .java instead of .class files (it doesn't explode the jar).

---

UPDATE

People ask me: How do I get the fernflower.jar?

If you have any IntelliJ product installed, chances are that you already have the Fernflower decompiler on your computer. IntelliJ IDEA comes with Java Bytecode Decompiler plugin (bundled) which is a modern extension of Fernflower.

1. Locate the file in ${IntelliJ_INSTALL_DIR}\plugins\java-decompiler\lib\java-decompiler.jar (example: C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 2018\plugins\java-decompiler\lib).
2. Copy it somewhere and rename to fernflower.jar (optional).

3. This JAR is not executable, so we can't run it using java -jar. However something like this works:

   java -cp fernflower.jar org.jetbrains.java.decompiler.main.decompiler.ConsoleDecompiler [<source>]+ <destination>
   

   org.jetbrains.java.decompiler.main.decompiler.ConsoleDecompiler is the class that contains the main method to run the decompiler.

   Example:

   mkdir output_src
   java -cp fernflower.jar org.jetbrains.java.decompiler.main.decompiler.ConsoleDecompiler -hdc=0 -dgs=1 -rsy=1 -lit=1 ./input.jar ./output_src
   

If you don't have IntelliJ products installed, either download it now (available on jetbrains.com) or make your own decompiler executable from sources (available on Github).

1. Open an existing project or create a new one.

2. Go to Project structure settings > Libraries. Add the jar you want to decompile in libraries by clicking the + symbol.

3. Go to the Project tool window shown on the left. Search for jar name that you added in the previous step. Navigate to the desired class or package.

You can see the decompiled java files for that jar.

The decompiler of IntelliJ IDEA was not built with this kind of usage in mind. It is only meant to help programmers peek at the bytecode of the java classes that they are developing. For decompiling lots of class files of which you do not have source code, you will need some other java decompiler, which is specialized for this job, and most likely runs standalone. If you google you should find a bunch.

You could use one of these (you can both use them online or download them, there is some info about each of them) : http://www.javadecompilers.com/

The one IntelliJ IDEA uses is fernflower, but it can't handle recent things - like String/Enum switches, generics (didn't test this one personally, only read about it), ... I just tried cfr from the above website and the result was the same as with the built-in decompiler (except for the Enum switch I had in my class).

Try

https://github.com/fesh0r/fernflower

Download jar from

http://files.minecraftforge.net/maven/net/minecraftforge/fernflower/

Command :

java -jar fernflower.jar -hes=0 -hdc=0 C:\binary  C:\source

Place your jar file in folder C:\binary and source will be extracted and packed in a jar inside C:\source.

Enjoy!