Java Decompiler HOW−TO

Java Decompiler HOW−TO

Table of Contents
Java Decompiler HOW−TO..............................................................................................................................1
Al Dev (Alavoor Vasudevan) alavoor[AT]yahoo.com...........................................................................1
1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................................1
2. How can I trust Java Decompiler ??!!..................................................................................................1
3. Related URLs.......................................................................................................................................1
4. Other Formats of this Document..........................................................................................................1
5. Copyright.............................................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................................1
2. How can I trust Java Decompiler ??!!..................................................................................................2
3. Related URLs.......................................................................................................................................3
4. Other Formats of this Document..........................................................................................................3
4.1 Acrobat PDF format.........................................................................................................................4
4.2 Convert Linuxdoc to Docbook format .............................................................................................5
4.3 Convert to MS WinHelp format ......................................................................................................5
4.4 Reading various formats ..................................................................................................................5
5. Copyright.............................................................................................................................................6

i
Java Decompiler HOW−TO
Al Dev (Alavoor Vasudevan) alavoor[AT]yahoo.com
v4.3, 08 March 2002

This document will help you to de−compile the Java class programs. This documents gives a list of
decompilers which can reverse engineer the Java class files and generate the Java source code files. Thie is
very helpful if you do not have the Java source code file and have only the Java class files. The information in
this document applies to all the operating sytems where Java language/Java VM runs.

1. Introduction
2. How can I trust Java Decompiler ??!!
3. Related URLs
4. Other Formats of this Document
• 4.1 Acrobat PDF format
• 4.2 Convert Linuxdoc to Docbook format
• 4.3 Convert to MS WinHelp format
• 4.4 Reading various formats

5. Copyright

1. Introduction
(The latest version of this document is at http://www.milkywaygalaxy.freeservers.com. You may want
to check there for changes).

Java compiler compiles the Java source code files (*.java) into binaries files (*.class). You would use the
Java de−compiler to convert java class files into source code files (*.java).

Java de−compiler is very useful especially if you have *.class files and you do not have access to the source
code. Some vendors do not ship the source code for java class files, in which case you use the java
decompiler to look at the source code.

See also the "javap" command from Sun Microsystems. This command is available as soon as you install the
JDK from Sun Microsystems. At unix prompt type −

bash$ javap −help

Java Decompiler HOW−TO 1

 Java Decompiler HOW−TO

bash$ javap −c <filename>.class

The following are the list of Java decompilers available −

• Free "Jad" Java Decompiler at

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bridge/8617/jad.html#general and at
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bridge/8617/jad.html#gui

• List of Decompilers, disassemblers and obfuscators are at

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/Java

• Free "Mocha" Java Decompiler at http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/computers and download at

http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/computers/mocha−b1.zip

• "DeCafe Pro" from DeCafe, France at http://decafe.hypermart.net/index.htm

• "SourceTech Java decompiler" from Source Tech corp at http://www.srctec.com and at

http://members.tripod.com/~SourceTec/jasmine.htm

• "SourceAgain" from Ahpah corp at http://www.ahpah.com

• "Class Cracker" from Mayon Software, Australia at

http://www.tip.net.au/~mayon/classcracker/ccorder.html and at http://www.pcug.org.au/~mayon

• "IceBreaker" from BreakerTech corp, U.K. at http://www.breakertech.com and at

http://www.breakertech.com/breaker/ice/ice.html#download

• "NMI Java decompiler" from NMI at http://njcv.htmlplanet.com and at

http://njcv.htmlplanet.com/njcv.html

• Google
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programming/Languages/Java/Development_Tools/Translators/De

2. How can I trust Java Decompiler ??!!

For 100% assurance you need a SCIENTIFIC way to validate and trust the Java Decompiler program. The
method described in this section will enable the decompiler program to be accepted as "trust−worthy" and
reliable.

In order to verify that the decompiler program is regenerating the Java source−code properly, use the
following technique −

Generate the class file from the generated source code using the compiler −

bash$ mv myprogram.class myprogram_orig.class

bash$ javac myprogram.java

2. How can I trust Java Decompiler ??!! 2

 Java Decompiler HOW−TO

Now use the unix 'diff' command to compare the two class files −

bash$ diff myprogram.class myprogram_orig.class

Both these files MUST BE IDENTICAL. This verifies that decompiler program is working perfectly. On
DOS or Windows 95 you may want to use the free Cygnus Cygwin 'diff' or 'MKS' utilities.

This step gives 100% guarantee and 100% quality assurance and life term or long term WARRANTY on
decompiler programs.

It is strongly recommended that you do these steps every time you run decompiler programs.

3. Related URLs
Visit following locators which are related to Java −

• http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Enterprise−Java−for−Linux−HOWTO.html
• http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Java−CGI−HOWTO.html
• http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/JavaStation−HOWTO/index.html
• Vim color text editor for Java, C++, C
• Beautifier HOWTO for Java and C++ programs
• C++ Programming HOWTO has support for Java like String objects
• Linux goodies main site is at http://www.milkywaygalaxy.freeservers.com Mirror sites are at −
http://aldev0.webjump.com, angelfire, geocities, virtualave, 50megs, theglobe, NBCi, Terrashare,
Fortunecity, Freewebsites, Tripod, Spree, Escalix, Httpcity, Freeservers.

4. Other Formats of this Document

This document is published in 14 different formats namely − DVI, Postscript, Latex, Adobe Acrobat PDF,
LyX, GNU−info, HTML, RTF(Rich Text Format), Plain−text, Unix man pages, single HTML file, SGML
(Linuxdoc format), SGML (Docbook format), MS WinHelp format.

This howto document is located at −

• http://www.linuxdoc.org and click on HOWTOs and search for howto document name using
CTRL+f or ALT+f within the web−browser.

You can also find this document at the following mirrors sites −

• http://www.caldera.com/LDP/HOWTO
• http://www.linux.ucla.edu/LDP
• http://www.cc.gatech.edu/linux/LDP
• http://www.redhat.com/mirrors/LDP
• Other mirror sites near you (network−address−wise) can be found at
http://www.linuxdoc.org/mirrors.html select a site and go to directory

3. Related URLs 3
 Java Decompiler HOW−TO

/LDP/HOWTO/xxxxx−HOWTO.html

• You can get this HOWTO document as a single file tar ball in HTML, DVI, Postscript or SGML
formats from − ftp://www.linuxdoc.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other−formats/ and
http://www.linuxdoc.org/docs.html#howto

• Plain text format is in: ftp://www.linuxdoc.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO and

http://www.linuxdoc.org/docs.html#howto

• Single HTML file format is in: http://www.linuxdoc.org/docs.html#howto

Single HTML file can be created with command (see man sgml2html) − sgml2html −split 0
xxxxhowto.sgml

• Translations to other languages like French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese are in
ftp://www.linuxdoc.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO and
http://www.linuxdoc.org/docs.html#howto Any help from you to translate to other languages is
welcome.
The document is written using a tool called "SGML−Tools" which can be got from −
http://www.sgmltools.org Compiling the source you will get the following commands like
• sgml2html xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate html file)
• sgml2html −split 0 xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate a single page html file)
• sgml2rtf xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate RTF file)
• sgml2latex xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate latex file)

4.1 Acrobat PDF format

PDF file can be generated from postscript file using either acrobat distill or Ghostscript. And postscript file
is generated from DVI which in turn is generated from LaTex file. You can download distill software from
http://www.adobe.com. Given below is a sample session:

bash$ man sgml2latex

bash$ sgml2latex filename.sgml
bash$ man dvips
bash$ dvips −o filename.ps filename.dvi
bash$ distill filename.ps
bash$ man ghostscript
bash$ man ps2pdf
bash$ ps2pdf input.ps output.pdf
bash$ acroread output.pdf &

Or you can use Ghostscript command ps2pdf. ps2pdf is a work−alike for nearly all the functionality of
Adobe's Acrobat Distiller product: it converts PostScript files to Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
ps2pdf is implemented as a very small command script (batch file) that invokes Ghostscript, selecting a
special "output device" called pdfwrite. In order to use ps2pdf, the pdfwrite device must be included in the
makefile when Ghostscript was compiled; see the documentation on building Ghostscript for details.

4.1 Acrobat PDF format 4

 Java Decompiler HOW−TO

4.2 Convert Linuxdoc to Docbook format

This document is written in linuxdoc SGML format. The Docbook SGML format supercedes the linuxdoc
format and has lot more features than linuxdoc. The linuxdoc is very simple and is easy to use. To convert
linuxdoc SGML file to Docbook SGML use the program ld2db.sh and some perl scripts. The ld2db output is
not 100% clean and you need to use the clean_ld2db.pl perl script. You may need to manually correct few
lines in the document.

• Download ld2db program from http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~rrt/docbook.html or from Milkyway

Galaxy site
• Download the cleanup_ld2db.pl perl script from from Milkyway Galaxy site
The ld2db.sh is not 100% clean, you will get lots of errors when you run

bash$ ld2db.sh file−linuxdoc.sgml db.sgml

bash$ cleanup.pl db.sgml > db_clean.sgml
bash$ gvim db_clean.sgml
bash$ docbook2html db.sgml

And you may have to manually edit some of the minor errors after running the perl script. For e.g. you may
need to put closing tag < /Para> for each < Listitem>

4.3 Convert to MS WinHelp format

You can convert the SGML howto document to Microsoft Windows Help file, first convert the sgml to html
using:

bash$ sgml2html xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate html file)

bash$ sgml2html −split 0 xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate a single page html file)

Then use the tool HtmlToHlp. You can also use sgml2rtf and then use the RTF files for generating winhelp
files.

4.4 Reading various formats

In order to view the document in dvi format, use the xdvi program. The xdvi program is located in
tetex−xdvi*.rpm package in Redhat Linux which can be located through ControlPanel | Applications |
Publishing | TeX menu buttons. To read dvi document give the command −

xdvi −geometry 80x90 howto.dvi

man xdvi

And resize the window with mouse. To navigate use Arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down keys, also you can
use 'f', 'd', 'u', 'c', 'l', 'r', 'p', 'n' letter keys to move up, down, center, next page, previous page etc. To turn off
expert menu press 'x'.

You can read postscript file using the program 'gv' (ghostview) or 'ghostscript'. The ghostscript program is in
ghostscript*.rpm package and gv program is in gv*.rpm package in Redhat Linux which can be located

4.2 Convert Linuxdoc to Docbook format 5

 Java Decompiler HOW−TO

through ControlPanel | Applications | Graphics menu buttons. The gv program is much more user friendly
than ghostscript. Also ghostscript and gv are available on other platforms like OS/2, Windows 95 and NT,
you view this document even on those platforms.

• Get ghostscript for Windows 95, OS/2, and for all OSes from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost

To read postscript document give the command −

gv howto.ps
ghostscript howto.ps

You can read HTML format document using Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet explorer, Redhat Baron
Web browser or any of the 10 other web browsers.

You can read the latex, LyX output using LyX a X−Windows front end to latex.

5. Copyright
Copyright policy is GNU/GPL as per LDP (Linux Documentation project). LDP is a GNU/GPL project.
Additional requests are − you retain the author's name, email address and this copyright notice on all the
copies. If you make any changes or additions to this document then you should intimate all the authors of this
document.

5. Copyright 6