EARExpander command

Use the EARExpander command to expand an EAR file into a directory to run the application in that EAR file.

We can collapse a directory containing application files into a single EAR file. We can type EARExpander with no arguments to learn more about its options. For more information about where to run this command, see the topic on using command tools.

Restriction: Do not include a pound sign (#) in the name of files that are packaged within an application archive. Due to internal processing, the application server fails to correctly deploy the application when a pound sign is included in a file name within the application archive. When this failure occurs, an exception might occur when the application is being processed. Also, parts of the application might be missing after the application is deployed. To address this issue, rename any file names within the application archive so that they do not contain a pound sign.

Syntax

The command syntax is as follows:

EarExpander -ear earName -operationDir dirName -operation <expand | collapse> [-expansionFlags <all|war>]

Parameters

The following options are available for the EARExpander command:

-ear

Name of the input EAR file for the expand operation or the name of the output EAR file for the collapse operation.

-operationDir

Directory where the EAR file is expanded or specifies the directory from where files are collapsed.

-operation <expand | collapse>

The expand value expands an EAR file into a directory structure required by the WAS run time. The collapse value creates an EAR file from an expanded directory structure.

-expansionFlags <all | war>

(Optional) The all value expands all files from all the modules. The war value only expands the files from web archive (WAR) file modules.

Usage scenario

The following examples demonstrate correct syntax:

EARExpander -ear C:\WebSphere\AppServer\installableApps\DefaultApplication.ear -operationDir C:\MyApps
 -operation expand -expansionFlags war
 EARExpander -ear C:\backup\DefaultApplication.ear -operationDir C:\MyAppsDefaultApplication.ear
 -operation collapse

EARExpander.sh -ear /WebSphere/AppServer/installableApps/DefaultApplication.ear -operationDir /MyApps
 -operation expand -expansionFlags war
 EARExpander.sh -ear /backup/DefaultApplication.ear -operationDir /MyAppsDefaultApplication.ear
 -operation collapse

Return codes

The EARExpander command has the following return codes.

and their descriptions. The return code indicates the

Return code	Description
-1	A syntax error exists.
0	The command ran successfully.
1	An error occurred.
2	An exception occurred.

Related tasks

Use command-line tools