How a file parameter is processed, depends on its type. Legal parameters are class names, files, directories, patterns and special parameters (pseudo options).

• Classes: Classes are specified in the form classname.class. Autojar searches the class path for the corresponding file. If found, the file is copied to the output archive. Autojar then scans the file's bytecode for other referenced classes and repeats this process recursively as long as necessary.

  The last component of the class name may contain wildcards * and ?. In this case, all classes matching the pattern are looked up and inserted. For example, a.b.*.class copies all classes from the package a.b to the output archive.

  A pattern of the form **.class causes a recursive copy. If a parameter a.b.**.class is given, all classes belonging to package a.b and all classes belonging to its subpackages (a.b.x, a.b.x.y, a.b.z etc.) will be included.

• .jar and .war files: All files from the archive are copied to the output, if not yet present, except the "META-INF" directory. Class files are treated as described above.
• .zip files: Like .jar files, but class files are not handled specially.
• Other files: If the path denotes an existing file, it is copied to the output. Otherwise, if the path is relative, and a search path for files has been provided (option -p or -b), Autojar tries to find the corresponding file using the search path. Like with classes, the name part may contain wildcards. If the last component is **, the corresponding directory will be looked up and copied to the output recursively, including all files and subdirectories.
  Note that supplying a class file with an absolute path name normalyy doesn't make sense. It will be treated like a normal file, that is, no recursive class scan will take place.
• Directories: Directories are copied recursively, except for files matching an exclude pattern (see Special parameters). All files, including class files, are treated as normal files.