Metadata file sometimes included as part of a Java Archive (.JAR file); saved in the /META-INF/ directory within the JAR file and contains an index of information about the source code packages also in the JAR file; used to speed up the process of loading Java classes when programs are run; often contains a list of JARs needed to be downloaded by the Java program.
To add an INDEX.LIST file to a Java Archive, you can use the -i option with the jar command.