Java Reference
In-Depth Information
and accuracy of the JAR file; you can trust it as much as you trust
the signer.
Generally speaking, an applet must be signed by a key that the user
trusts in order for the applet to increase its security access to the client
machine (open/read/write files, access the printer, and so on). But we don't
cover applets in this topic.
keytool
This tool is used to create and manage the keys we were talking about in
the previous entry. Again, this is used mainly for JAR signing, and JAR
signing is used mainly for applet authentication, but we don't cover applets
in this topic.
rmid
The RMI activation daemon. In the RMI example we showed you in this
chapter, you had to start a server manually and leave it running to process
requests.
RMI activation
is a system where RMI servers may be started on
demand.
serialver
Reports the RMI
serialVersionUID
of a class. This can be useful when
trying to track down problems with complex RMI systems, especially when
multiple versions of an RMI interface with the same name must be in use
at the same time.
native2ascii
As mentioned before, Java uses Unicode for all strings. Most of the time,
you and we are working with ASCII-encoded files. This program converts
files from one format to the other.
policytool
Remember how we had to set up a security policy file for our RMI
demonstration (Example 5.13)? Well, this is a Java GUI application for
creating and editing Java policy files.
There are a few more. One group of utilities is related to Kerberos tickets.
Another is related to Java IDL and RMI-IIOP, both of which are to allow Java
to interoperate with CORBA. If you are in a CORBA environment, you will
want to look at those. We've got enough on our plates without trying to jam
CORBA in here. You're on your own, buddy. Finally, there are a couple of
