Sun / Oracle releases of Java SE come in two forms: JRE and JDK. In simple terms, JREs support running Java applications, and JDKs also support Java development.

Java Runtime Environment

Java Runtime Environment or JRE distributions consist of the set of libraries and tools needed to run and manage Java applications. The tools in a typical modern JRE include:

“Desktop JRE” installers include a Java plugin suitable for some web browser. This is deliberately left out of “Server JRE” installers.linux syscall read benchmarku

From Java 7 update 6 onwards, JRE installers have included JavaFX (version 2.2 or later).

Java Development Kit

A Java Development Kit or JDK distribution includes the JRE tools, and additional tools for developing Java software. The additional tools typically include:

- `appletviewer` for running applets
- `idlj` the CORBA IDL to Java compiler
- `javah` the JNI stub generator
- `native2ascii` for character set conversion of Java source code
- `schemagen` the Java to XML schema generator (part of JAXB)
- `serialver` generate Java Object Serialization version string.
- the `wsgen` and `wsimport` support tools for JAX-WS
- `jdb` the basic Java debugger
- `jmap` and `jhat` for dumping and analysing a Java heap.
- `jstack` for getting a thread stack dump.
- `javap` for examining ".class" files.