How can I identify unnecessary jars included in my project?

Question

I\'m working in a Java project where the axis 2 library from Apache is being used. The axis 2 library is composed of about 20 jar files and some of these are not used projec

Answer 1

I don't think you can reliably remove jars since classes may be resolved at runtime e.g. using

Class.forName(className);

You may be able to determine the class names used for the above, but it's unlikely.

Since classes will be requested/resolved at runtime, you could run your (comprehensive) test suite to determine whether stuff still works. But ultimately I would be very wary of removing jars from a package like Axis. I assume they're there for a purpose. Is the jar file size really a problem ?

Answer 2

tattletale FTW

http://www.jboss.org/tattletale

JBoss Tattletale is a tool that can help you get an overview of the project you are working on or a product that you depend on.

The tool will provide you with reports that can help you

• Identify dependencies between JAR files
• Spot if a class is located in multiple JAR files
• Spot if the same JAR file is located in multiple locations
• With a list of what each JAR file requires and provides

Answer 3

I would follow your original idea of adding one jar at time until it compiles.

You're right that you can still find run-time errors, but unless the application is too big for a good coverage with manual tests, I would simply run and test it to add any missing jars.