Extract src.zip from JDK Installer

Last Updated on 14/11/2020

Since Oracle stopped shipping src.zip inside of tools.zip on the release 45 of JDK 8, this tutorial will show you how to extract src.zip from JDK installer.

Download the JDK

Visit this link to download the appropriate JDK for your Windows (32 or 64 bits), accepting Oracle’s license agreement.

Run the Installer, but stop right away!

Once you’ve downloaded the installer, execute it and wait until the welcome page is presented, don’t click on Next or not even close it:

Extraction

Whilst you keep the welcome page opened, go to the C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Oracle\Java, replacing <youruser> by your current Windows’ user, for example C:\Users\bruno.gasparotto\AppData\LocalLow\Oracle, then you might see something like the following:

Go to the JDK folder then you might see the following files:

These files contains the following resources, pay attention to their prefixes to help you finding the right file on the next JDK releases:

• jdk1.8.0_12164.msi: the MSI installer
• sj180121.cab: the JRE runnable
• ss180121.cab: the src.zip we are looking for
• st180121.cab: the tools.zip we can extract the JDK from
• sz180121.cab: the COPYRIGHT file

Open the file ss180121.cab and copy the src.zip to a safe location, because the cab files are going to vanish when you close the installer.

Finally, with the src.zip file saved somewhere safe, close the installer you opened at the beginning of this tutorial.

For a guide on how to properly extract the JDK from the downloaded installer, please refer to:

• bgasparotto – Convert JDK from EXE to ZIP

Hope it helps. Cya!

References

• Stack Overflow – No “src.zip” when extracting JDK installer
• Brucalipto.org – How to Create a Portable JDK 1.8 on Windows