| Internet media type | application/java-vm, application/x-httpd-java, application/x-java, application/java, application/java-byte-code, application/x-java-class, application/x-java-vm |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Sun Microsystems |
A Java class file is a file (with the .class filename extension) containing Java bytecode that can be executed on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). A Java class file is usually produced by a Java compiler from Java programming language source files (.java files) containing Java classes (alternatively, other JVM languages can also be used to create class files). If a source file has more than one class, each class is compiled into a separate class file. Thus, it is called a .class file because it contains the bytecode for a single class.
JVMs are available for many platforms, and a class file compiled on one platform will execute on a JVM of another platform. This makes Java applications platform-independent.