The history of this magic number was explained by James Gosling referring to a restaurant in Palo Alto: Attributes: Any attributes of the class (for example the name of the sourcefile, etc.)Ĭlass files are identified by the following 4 byte header (in hexadecimal): CA FE BA BE (the first 4 entries in the table below).Interfaces: Any interfaces in the class.Super Class: The name of the super class.This Class: The name of the current class.Access Flags: for example whether the class is abstract, static, etc.Constant Pool: Pool of constants for the class.Version of Class File Format: the minor and major versions of the class file.There are 10 basic sections to the Java class file structure: On 11 December 2006, the class file format was modified under Java Specification Request (JSR) 202. This makes Java applications platform-independent. JVMs are available for many platforms, and a class file compiled on one platform will execute on a JVM of another platform. If a source file has more than one class, each class is compiled into a separate class file.

java files) containing Java classes (alternatively, other JVM languages can also be used to create class files). A Java class file is usually produced by a Java compiler from Java programming language source files (.

class filename extension) containing Java bytecode that can be executed on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Java class file Internet media typeĪpplication/java-vm, application/x-httpd-javaĪ Java class file is a file (with the. For classes in Java, see Class (computer programming).

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