This chapter explains how to deal with plain JAR files (typically libraries) that contain no deployment metadata whatsoever. That is, a plain JAR is neither a FAB, nor a WAR, nor an OSGi bundle.

If the plain JAR occurs as a dependency of a bundle, you must add bundle headers to the JAR . If the JAR exposes a public API, typically the best solution is to convert the existing JAR into a bundle, enabling the JAR to be shared with other bundles. This chapter describes how to perform the conversion process automatically, using the open source Bnd tool.