What is a .JAM file?
JAM is a Boost.Build (b2) build script - makefile-like rules describing how to compile a project, used most famously by the Boost C++ libraries.
- Did you know
- Boost.Build grew out of Perforce Jam, a 1990s build tool whose name stands for "just another make".
- A Jamfile lists targets and dependencies declaratively and lets b2 work out the commands, the same idea as make but with cross-platform toolchain handling built in.
- OrcaSlicer pulls in Boost, which is why its dependency tree carries .jam files such as common.jam.
- What Analyser reads
- Open and read programming-language source, build and configuration files as text: C, C++ and their headers, C#, Java, Kotlin, Go, Rust, Python, Ruby, PHP, Swift, Scala, Lua, Perl, R, Dart, Groovy and Visual Basic, GPU shaders (GLSL, HLSL), shell scripts (sh, Bash, Zsh, Fish), and the build and tooling files that fill a source repository - CMake, Makefiles, Ninja, Autotools (.in / .ac / .am / .m4), qmake projects, Doxygen configs and the dotfiles that configure Git, Docker, npm, ESLint, Prettier, Cursor and clang-format. Also opens Objective-C++ (.mm / .hmm), more GPU shaders (.fs / .vs / .gs), Boost.Jam and Meson build scripts, Unix manual pages, web stylesheets (Less, Sass/SCSS) and Svelte components, gettext translations (.po / .pot), Apple entitlements and licence/readme text, plus Cython (.pyx), OpenGL shaders (.fsh / .vsh / .geom), Git hook samples, ESLint and Yarn configs and ASP.NET (.aspx) pages. Each opens with a source preview, line count and metadata, entirely in your browser.
- Depth of analysis
- .JAM is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .JAM file
- Drag a .JAM file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.