jcmd - JVM Diagnostic Tool Command

This section describes what is 'jcmd' (Java jcmd Tool) - is a command line tool to run diagnostic commands against a given JVM on the local machine.

What Is "jcmd"? - "jcmd", The JVM Diagnostic Tool, is a command line tool to run diagnostic commands against a given JVM on the local machine.

"jcmd" has been included in JDK installation since JDK 7. And it is represented by the %java_home%\bin\jcmd.exe program file.

If you have %java_home%\bin directory included in "path" the environment variable, you can run "jcmd -h" to see a complete list of all options:

herong> jcmd -h
Usage: jcmd <pid | main class> <command ...|PerfCounter.print|-f file>
   or: jcmd -l
   or: jcmd -h

  command must be a valid jcmd command for the selected jvm.
  Use the command "help" to see which commands are available.
  If the pid is 0, commands will be sent to all Java processes.
  The main class argument will be used to match (either partially
  or fully) the class used to start Java.
  If no options are given, lists Java processes (same as -l).

  PerfCounter.print display the counters exposed by this process
  -f  read and execute commands from the file
  -l  list JVM processes on the local machine
  -h  this help

Let's try with the LongSleep.java program:

/* LongSleep.java
 * Copyright (c) 2005 HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
 */
class LongSleep {
   public static void main(String[] a) {
      Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime();
      System.out.println(" Free memory: " + rt.freeMemory());
      System.out.println("Total memory: " + rt.totalMemory());
      try {Thread.sleep(1000*60*60);}
      catch (InterruptedException e) {}
   }
}

Compile and run it:

herong> javac LongSleep.java

herong> javac LongSleep

Now we can use the "jcmd -l" command to list all running JVMs on the local machine, Then use the PID or the class main from the output to identify the JVM.

herong> jcmd -l
10848 LongSleep
8352 jdk.jcmd/sun.tools.jcmd.JCmd -l

The output tells us that I have a JVM running my LongSleep.java program on my local machine. We can identify that JVM with the PID of 10848, or the class name of "LongSleep".

By the way, you can also use the "jps -l" command to get the same information as "jcmd -l":

herong> jps -l
10848 LongSleep
4344 jdk.jcmd/sun.tools.jps.Jps

For more information, see "jcmd" reference page at https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/specs/man/jcmd.html.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Java Tools Terminology

 Java Tools Included in JDK

 javac - The Java Program Compiler

 java - The Java Program Launcher

 jar - The JAR File Tool

 jlink - The JRE Linker

 jmod - The JMOD File Tool

 jimage - The JIMAGE File Tool

 jpackage - Binary Package Builder

 javadoc - The Java Document Generator

 jdeps - The Java Class Dependency Analyzer

 jdeprscan - The Java Deprecated API Scanner

 jdb - The Java Debugger

jcmd - The JVM Diagnostic Tool

jcmd - JVM Diagnostic Tool Command

 "jcmd 0 help" - Listing JVM Diagnostic Commands

 "jcmd 0 VM.*" - Running VM Diagnostic Commands

 "jcmd 0 GC.*" - Running GC Diagnostic Commands

 "jcmd 0 Thread.print" - Generating Thread Dump

 jconsole - Java Monitoring and Management Console

 jstat - JVM Statistics Monitoring Tool

 JVM Troubleshooting Tools

 jhsdb - The Java HotSpot Debugger

 jvisualvm (Java VisualVM) - JVM Visual Tool

 jmc - Java Mission Control

 javap - The Java Class File Disassembler

 keytool - Public Key Certificate Tool

 jarsigner - JAR File Signer

 jshell - Java Language Shell

 jrunscript - Script Code Shell

 Miscellaneous Tools

 native2ascii - Native-to-ASCII Encoding Converter

 JAB (Java Access Bridge) for Windows

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB