Deployer

To be able to hot deploy features from the deploy folder, you can simply drop a Feature descriptor on that folder. A bundle will be created and its installation (automatic) will trigger the installation of all features contained in the descriptor. Removing the file from the deploy folder will uninstall the features. If you want to install a single feature, you can do so by writing a feature descriptor like the following:

<features>
            <repository>mvn:org.apache.servicemix.nmr/apache-servicemix-nmr/   \\
            1.0.0/xml/features</repository>
            <feature name="nmr-only">
            <feature>nmr</feature>
            </feature>
            </features>

For more informations about features, see Provisioning.

Karaf includes a deployer that is able to deploy plain blueprint configuration files. The deployer will transform on the fly any spring configuration file dropped into the deploy folder into a valid OSGi bundle. The generated OSGi manifest will contain the following headers:

Manifest-Version: 2
            Bundle-SymbolicName: [name of the file]
            Bundle-Version: [version of the file]
            Spring-Context: *;publish-context:=false;create-asynchronously:=true
            Import-Package: [required packages]
            DynamicImport-Package: *

The name and version of the file are extracted using a heuristic that will match common patterns. For example my-config-1.0.1.xml will lead to name = my-config and version = 1.0.1. The default imported packages are extracted from the Spring file definition and includes all classes referenced directly. If you need to customize the generated manifest, you can do so by including an xml element in your Spring configuration:

<spring:beans ...>
            <manifest>
            Require-Bundle= my-bundle
            </manifest>
            ...
            </spring:beans>

The wrap deployer allows you to hot deploy non-OSGi jar files ("classical" jar files) from the deploy folder. It's a standard deployer (you don't need to install additional Karaf features):

karaf@trun()> la|grep -i wrap
            35 | Active   |  24 | 4.0.0.SNAPSHOT        | Apache Karaf :: Deployer :: Wrap Non OSGi Jar
            92 | Active   |   5 | 2.4.1                 | OPS4J Pax Url - wrap:

Karaf wrap deployer looks for jar files in the deploy folder. The jar files is considered as non-OSGi if the MANIFEST doesn't contain the Bundle-SymbolicName and Bundle-Version attributes, or if there is no MANIFEST at all. The non-OSGi jar file is transformed into an OSGi bundle. The deployer tries to populate the Bundle-SymbolicName and Bundle-Version extracted from the jar file path. For example, if you simply copy commons-lang-2.3.jar (which is not an OSGi bundle) into the deploy folder, you will see:

karaf@trun> la|grep -i commons-lang
[ 41] [Active ] [       ] [ 60] commons-lang (2.3)

If you take a look on the commons-lang headers, you can see that the bundle exports all packages with optional resolution and that Bundle-SymbolicName and Bundle-Version have been populated:

karaf@trun> bundle:headers 41

commons-lang (41)
-----------------
Specification-Title = Commons Lang
Tool = Bnd-0.0.357
Specification-Version = 2.3
Specification-Vendor = Apache Software Foundation
Implementation-Version = 2.3
Generated-By-Ops4j-Pax-From = wrap:file:/home/onofreje/workspace/karaf/
    assembly/target/apache-karaf-2.99.99-SNAPSHOT/deploy/commons-lang-2.3
    .jar$ Bundle-SymbolicName=commons-lang&Bundle-Version=2.3
Implementation-Vendor-Id = org.apache
Created-By = 1.6.0_21 (Sun Microsystems Inc.)
Implementation-Title = Commons Lang
Manifest-Version = 1.0
Bnd-LastModified = 1297248243231
X-Compile-Target-JDK = 1.1
Originally-Created-By = 1.3.1_09-85 ("Apple Computer, Inc.")
Ant-Version = Apache Ant 1.6.5
Package = org.apache.commons.lang
X-Compile-Source-JDK = 1.3
Extension-Name = commons-lang
Implementation-Vendor = Apache Software Foundation

Bundle-Name = commons-lang
Bundle-SymbolicName = commons-lang
Bundle-Version = 2.3
Bundle-ManifestVersion = 2

Import-Package =
        org.apache.commons.lang;resolution:=optional,
        org.apache.commons.lang.builder;resolution:=optional,
        org.apache.commons.lang.enum;resolution:=optional,
        org.apache.commons.lang.enums;resolution:=optional,
        org.apache.commons.lang.exception;resolution:=optional,
        org.apache.commons.lang.math;resolution:=optional,
        org.apache.commons.lang.mutable;resolution:=optional,
        org.apache.commons.lang.text;resolution:=optional,
        org.apache.commons.lang.time;resolution:=optional
Export-Package =
        org.apache.commons.lang;uses:="org.apache.commons.lang.builder,
           org.apache.commons.lang.math,org.apache.commons.lang.exception",
        org.apache.commons.lang.builder;
             uses:="org.apache.commons.lang.math,org.apache.commons.lang",
        org.apache.commons.lang.enum;uses:=org.apache.commons.lang,
        org.apache.commons.lang.enums;uses:=org.apache.commons.lang,
        org.apache.commons.lang.exception;uses:=org.apache.commons.lang,
        org.apache.commons.lang.math;uses:=org.apache.commons.lang,
        org.apache.commons.lang.mutable;uses:="org.apache.commons.lang,
             org.apache.commons.lang.math",
        org.apache.commons.lang.text;uses:=org.apache.commons.lang,
        org.apache.commons.lang.time;uses:=org.apache.commons.lang

You may set the manifest headers by specifying them as URL parameters. The token '$' is used to separate the hierarchy path and query parts of the URL, with standard URL syntax for query parameters of key=value pairs joined by '&'. On the command line you must use single quotes around the URL to prevent the shell from attempting variable expansion, and if present, you must escape exclamation marks with a backslash.

install -s 'wrap:mvn:jboss/jbossall-client/4.2.3.GA/   \\
            $Bundle-SymbolicName=jbossall-client&Bundle-Version=4.2.3.GA&   \\
            Export-Package=org.jboss.remoting;version="4.2.3.GA",\!*'

If defined in a features.xml file, you'll need to escape any ampersands and quotes, or use a CDATA tag:

<bundle>wrap:mvn:jboss/jbossall-client/4.3.2.GA/   \\
            $Bundle-SymbolicName=jbossall-client   \\
            &Bundle-Version=4.3.2.GA   \\
            &Export-Package=org.jboss.remoting;version="4.3.2.GA",!*
            </bundle>

See Web Applications for information on web application (war) deployment.