The metadata for application constructs in OSGi Applications
support is defined in the appropriate manifest files.
OSGi Applications support includes the following manifest files.
OSGi bundle manifest
An OSGi bundle manifest
file,
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF, is defined for an
OSGi bundle, which can be a JAR or web application archive (WAR) file.
It contains additional headers to those in the manifest for a JAR
or WAR file that is not an OSGi bundle. The metadata that is specified
in these headers enables the OSGi Framework to process the modular
aspects of the bundle.
For details, see Example: OSGi bundle manifest file.
When
an OSGi bundle is a persistence bundle, the bundle manifest must include
a Meta-Persistence header in the bundle manifest. For details, see JPA and OSGi Applications.
Application manifest
An application manifest
file,
META-INF/APPLICATION.MF, is defined for
an enterprise bundle archive (EBA) file. It contains metadata that
enables the OSGi framework to process the modular aspects of an OSGi
application.
For details, see Enterprise bundle archives.
Deployment manifest
A deployment manifest file,
META-INF/DEPLOYMENT.MF,
is created automatically when an EBA asset is installed. It enumerates
all the bundles at specific versions that make up the application,
including bundles that are determined following dependency analysis.
For
details, see Enterprise bundle archives.
Composite manifest
A composite manifest file,
META-INF/COMPOSITEBUNDLE.MF,
is defined for a composite bundle. It defines the contents
of the composite bundle, and optionally some OSGi bundles with which to seed the
internal bundle repository.
For details, see Composite bundles.