Jarcomp

Jarcomp is a lightweight application designed for anyone working with Java files on a regular basis. The tool can be especially useful for system administrators and developers that need to compare the contents of Java packages and find out the specific changes with each of them.

The application comes with a user-friendly interface, and you can get started by adding the files you want to compare. As you would expect, the app works with only 2 files at a time, and it generates a details report where you can explore the differences. By clicking on an individual field, you can learn more about its size and location.

Simply put, the utility can help you identify new, deleted and edited files within the JAR packages by comparing the names, timestamps and sometimes the hash of the files. More importantly, the tool can detect missing classes, resources and dependencies, all of which can help you determine whether a specific JAR is compatible and consistent with your project. Just imagine how frustrating it can be to update or change a Java package, only to discover that specific apps stops working due to not being compatible.

It would have been nice if the comparison was done byte-by-byte, as it would allow a more precise comparison that includes the metadata and other data that is otherwise not visible. The latter would allow the detection of changes in the file’s encoding and, hence, detect possible functional changes. While this may not matter in most cases, it would be very useful in a software development, for instance.

In the eventuality that you are frequently working with Java files and packages and need to know more details about the versions you are managing, then perhaps Jarcomp could come in handy.