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Debian Java FAQ.
Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.1 Introduction to this FAQ

This FAQ was started by Javier Fernández-Sanguino who on February 1st, 2000 was enough to send a message to the debian-java mailing list with the subject "How about a Debian-Java-FAQ?". Of course, since "every idea is a responsibility" he had to do this himself looking through the three month-long archive of the newborn mailing list.

The purpose of this FAQ is to be a place to look for all kinds of questions a developer or user might have regarding Java as far as Debian is concerned. It includes license issues, development packages available, and programs related to building a Free Software Java environment.

Thanks go to all the (many) contributors from the debian-java mailing list, who have made this document possible. Without their knowledge this FAQ would not be at all possible since I only have a vague knowledge of what they're talking about when I browse the list.

Special thanks go to Paul Reavis, whose previous Debian-JDK informational page I used to add more information, and who made useful suggestions to this document. Also to Peter Moulder who revised thoroughly the FAQ and provided many suggestions, to Juergen Kreileder, maintainer of Blackdown's debian packages who pointed out some mistakes, and to Egon Willighagen, who has provided quite a lot of proper patches to update its content.

This document does not address issues with other Linux distributions, or with non-Debian-specific problems.

1.2 Location of this FAQ

This FAQ is published under the Debian Documentation Project at http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-java-faq/. The java-common (available at http://packages.debian.org/java-common) provides an HTML version for offline reading. The package version does not provide Text and PDF versions currently (if you want them please submit a bug 'wishlist' to the package). Also, the web version might be more up-to-date than the package's offline version.

Sources for this FAQ and its translation are available in a Subversion repository. They can be found here: http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/ddp/manuals/trunk/java-faq/

1.3 Sending bugs on this FAQ

Please note that this FAQ might be, sometimes, outdated but it gets updated step by step. Contributors (you included!) help improve the content and keep it up-to-date.

Please file bug reports against the java-common package if you find errors or have suggestions on how to improve this document. However, make sure first you are reading the latest version. If you are reading a translator, look first if the issue you have found does exist also in the original english version. You can always find the latest verion online version of the english text available at http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-java-faq/. Please, check it before filing a bug report. Translations, if available, and the offline version in the java-common package might be out of date.

You can also check if the issue you have found has already been reported. To do this, please browse through the bugs you will find in java-common's list of reported bugs.

Bugs on this FAQ, either for the english version or its translations, can be filed using Debian's Bug Tracking System. Please report the bugs against the java-common package.

1.4 What is Java?

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which is now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. Since May 2007, Sun/Oracle with some partners like Red Hat provide a free implementation released under the GNU GPL called OpenJDK. More information can be found at Wikipedia.

1.5 Where can I ask questions about Java on Debian?

The appropriate place to ask such questions is debian-java at lists.debian.org. You can subscribe at the Debian Mailing Lists page.

1.6 Complementary information

Users might want to access some online sources to complement the information available in this FAQ which might be, sometimes, too out of date. The main source of information is the Java entry at the Debian's wiki.

Since Ubuntu is based on Debian, some users might find it helpful to check the tips on Installing Java on Ubuntu's wiki.

1.7 Uncovered issues

This FAQ does not describe some issues due to lack of time and/or information. If you are able to help in any of these, please, provide them to the documentation maintainer:

Information on how to setup a fully working Servlet engine (Application Server) using Apache and Tomcat or information on how to setup non-free application servers (such as WebSphere) in Debian.

Specific information targeted for non-i386 users (PowerPC users and AMD64 users), some can be found in Ubuntu's wiki.