Documentation

    Table of Content
    • 3D File Formats
      • 3D File Formats
      • 3D2
      • 3DS
      • 3MF
      • AMF
      • ASE
      • DAE
      • DRC
      • FBX
      • GLB
      • GLTF
      • JRXML
      • JT
      • OBJ
      • PLY
      • PRC
      • RVM
      • STEP
      • U3D
      • VRML
      • X
      • X3D
    • Audio File Formats
      • Audio File Formats
      • AAC
      • FLAC
      • M3U
      • MID
      • MKA
      • MP3
      • OGG
      • RA
      • SDT
      • STAP
      • WAV
    • CAD File Formats
      • CAD File Formats
      • CF2
      • DC3
      • DGN
      • DWF
      • DWFX
      • DWG
      • DWT
      • DXF
      • HPGL
      • IFC
      • IGES
      • IGS
      • JVSG
      • NWC
      • NWD
      • NWF
      • PAT
      • PHJ
      • PLT
      • PSM
      • PSS
      • RVT
      • STL
    • Compression File Formats
      • Compression File Formats
      • 7Z
      • ARC
      • ARJ
      • BZ2
      • DAA
      • GZ
      • RAR
      • TAR
      • ZIM
      • ZIP
    • Database
      • Database File Formats
      • ACCDB
      • ACCDE
      • ACCDT
      • ACCFT
      • BAK
      • BCP
      • DDL
      • DTSX
      • LDF
      • MDB
      • MDF
      • MYI
      • NDF
      • NSF
      • SQL
      • SQLITE
    • EBook File Formats
      • EBook File Formats
      • AZW
      • AZW3
      • EPUB
      • FB2
      • KFX
      • LRF
      • LRS
      • LRX
      • MOBI
      • TR
    • Email File Formats
      • Email File Formats
      • EDB
      • EML
      • EMLX
      • ICS
      • MBOX
      • MSG
      • OFT
      • OST
      • PST
      • TNEF
      • VCF - Virtual Contact File
    • Font
      • Font File Formats
      • CFF
      • CFF2
      • EOT
      • FNT
      • FON
      • JFPROJ
      • OTF
      • PFA
      • PFB
      • PFM
      • SFD
      • TTF
      • WOFF
    • GIS File Formats
      • GIS File Formats
      • E00
      • FileGDB
      • GeoJSON
      • GML
      • GPX
      • KML
      • KMZ
      • OSM
      • SHP
    • Image File Formats
      • Image File Formats
      • APNG
      • AVIF
      • BMP
      • CDR
      • CMX
      • DCM
      • DIB
      • DICOM
      • DJVU
      • DNG
      • EMF
      • EMZ
      • EXIF
      • GIF
      • ICO
      • J2K
      • JP2
      • JPEG
      • JXR
      • ODG
      • OTG
      • PNG
      • PSB
      • PSD
      • SVGZ
      • TGA
      • TIFF
      • VDX
      • VSD
      • VSDM
      • VSDX
      • VSS
      • VSSM
      • VSSX
      • VST
      • VSTM
      • VSTX
      • VSX
      • VTX
      • WEBP
      • WMF
      • WMZ
    • Note Taking File Formats
      • Note Taking File Formats
      • ONE
      • ONETOC2
    • Page Description Language
      • Page Description Language
      • CGM
      • EPS
      • PCL
      • PS
      • SVG
      • SWF
      • TEX
      • XPS
      • XSLFO
    • PDF
      • PDF
      • PDF/A
      • PDF/E
      • PDF/UA
      • PDF/VT
      • PDF/X
    • Presentation File Formats
      • Presentation File Formats
      • ODP
      • OTP
      • POT
      • POTM
      • POTX
      • PPS
      • PPSM
      • PPSX
      • PPT
      • PPTM
      • PPTX
    • Programming
      • Programming
      • C
      • Class
      • CPP
      • CS
      • CSPROJ
      • Dart
      • H
      • JAR
      • Java
      • KT
      • MF
      • PDB
      • PHP
      • PY
      • SH
      • SLN
      • SWIFT
      • TOML
      • VB
      • VBPROJ
      • VCXPROJ
      • YAML
    • Project Management File Formats
      • Project Management File Formats
      • MPP
      • MPT
      • MPX
      • XER
    • Spreadsheet File Formats
      • Spreadsheet File Formats
      • CSV
      • DIF
      • ODS
      • OTS
      • TSV
      • XLAM
      • XLM
      • XLS
      • XLSB
      • XLSM
      • XLSX
      • XLT
      • XLTM
      • XLTX
    • Video File Formats
      • Video File Formats
      • 3G2
      • 3GP
      • AVI
      • F4V
      • FLV
      • M4V
      • MKV
      • MOV
      • MP4
      • RM
      • RMVB
      • RV
      • SRT
      • VOB
      • WMV
      • Xvid
    • Web File Formats
      • Web File Formats
      • ASP
      • ASPX
      • CHM
      • CSS
      • HTM
      • HTML
      • JS
      • JSON
      • MHTML
      • Sass
      • SCSS
      • VDW
      • XAML
      • XHTML
      • XML
      • XOML
      • XSLT
    • Word Processing File Formats
      • Word Processing File Formats
      • DOC
      • DOCM
      • DOCX
      • DOT
      • DOTM
      • DOTX
      • MD
      • ODT
      • OTT
      • RTF
      • TXT

    What's on this Page

      • What is a MF file?
      • Manifest File Format Specifications
        • Main Sections
        • Individual Sections
        • Manifest Specifications
      • References
    1. Home
    2. Programming
    3. MF

    What is a MF file?

    A file with .mf extension is a Java Manifest file that contains information about the individual JAR file entries. The MF file itself is contained inside the JAR file and provides all the extension and package-related definition. JAR files can be produced to be used as an executable file. In such case, the mainfest file specifies the main class of the application that contains public static void main statement. Manifest files are named as MANIFEST.MF and can be opened with any text editor on Windows, MacOS and Linux Operating Systems.

    Manifest File Format Specifications

    Manifest file format specifications are available by Oracle in their guide for JAR file format. A Manifest file comprises of main sections that are followed by a list of sections for individual JAR file entries. Each section follows some rules and restrictions.

    Main Sections

    A main section:

    • contains information about security and configuration about the JAR file
    • contains information about the application or extension that the JAR file is part of
    • defines the main attributes for each individual manifest item

    Note: No attribute in this section can be named “Name”.

    Individual Sections

    An individual section defines various attributes for packages or files of a JAR file. Each section must start with an attribute named “Name” whose value must be a relative path to the file, or an absolute URL referencing data outside the archive.

    Manifest Specifications

    AttibutesDescription
    manifest-filemain-section newline *individual-section
    main-sectionversion-info newline *main-attribute
    version-infoManifest-Version : version-number
    version-numberdigit+{.digit+}*
    main-attribute(any legitimate main attribute) newline
    individual-sectionName : value newline *perentry-attribute
    perentry-attribute(any legitimate perentry attribute) newline
    newlineCR LF
    digit{0-9}

    References

    • Oracle - JAR File Format
    • JAR File Format