What's the convention for java package names without a domain association?

Question

I can't find a Q/A on SO that answers my exact question, so I figure I'd post it and see what comes back.

As far as the naming convention goes for Java packages, I understand that it's supposed to be the reverse domain name: com.whatever.stuff and I get the rules about no mixed case, hyphens, keywords, etc.

I've also read section 7.7 (Unique-Package-Names) of the Java Language Specification. As far as I can tell, the rules from Java are to use the reverse domain to insure uniqueness... and if you don't have one, go get one:

You form a unique package name by first having (or belonging to an organization that has) an Internet domainname, such as sun.com. - Section 7.7

So if I'm not interested in shelling out the money for a domain name, I don't belong to a company whose name I can piggyback off of, is there any part of the naming convention that I'm missing that should be followed? I'm thinking I can just go name it whatever unique name I feel like at this point, but I was just wondering if I was missing anything.

Note: I would like to release my package for other developers to use, so I didn’t want to just do something that worked on my system, but something more standard if possible.

I added the android tag because the java packages I'm going to be writing are going to be used in an Android application, wasn't sure if there were different opinions from android developers.

I often see `me.myname.myproject` – nathanfranke Feb 03 '22 at 17:42 — nathanfranke, Feb 03 '22 at 17:42

arshajii · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-10T02:58:16.710

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If you are going to be distributing a lot of stuff, I would really suggest getting a domain name. Another alternative however would be to use your e-mail: e.g. bob@gmail.com would become com.gmail.bob. This is less common than using domain names but is still done by some and still ensures uniqueness.

edited Jul 10 '13 at 02:58

answered Sep 21 '12 at 18:06

arshajii

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+1 That's actually a really good idea, I didn't think to use my email account. I'm only planing on distributing 2 packages really, not a lot... So maybe that's what I'll go with. – Mike Sep 21 '12 at 18:10
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+1 Getting a domain name is a good idea if you plan on distributing your stuff. – Brian Sep 21 '12 at 18:10
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+1, very nice. To distinguish from the namespace of the email provider, it could be useful to prefix it with `email.` (as in `email.com.gmail.bob`) – Jannis Froese Sep 21 '12 at 19:30
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What can we do, when we get a domain name afterwards? Can't we use a domain we don't own? What happens if we surrender the domain we are currently using? Thanks. – Anay Karnik Mar 02 '15 at 13:23
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@JannisFroese, someone now owns the *com.email* domain, thus invalidating `email.com.*` Link: http://www.com.email – Mathieu K. Mar 30 '18 at 20:58
Please split this into two answers; they are not at all the same, and thus they each have different merits. – Mathieu K. Mar 30 '18 at 22:52
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Email isn't a good idea unless you own your own domain, in which case it's not necessary anyway. My reasoning: I don't own example@gmail.com in any meaningful sense that I can discern--I'm just a user, and no money has changed hands--nor can I prevent Google from creating an example.gmail.com subdomain. – Mathieu K. Mar 30 '18 at 22:56
Just to ad that this is still a valid solution for when you move to a domain of your own and upload the app-ads.txt file to your server, as Google at least apparently (and I'm so glad!) won't use your app ID to look for your server but your Google Play app entry website URL. Yay! (This had me sweating for a while) – ecv Aug 28 '19 at 22:54

Grundlefleck · Answer 2 · 2012-09-21T18:15:36.670

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One convention is to use the domain name of the hosting provider, e.g.

com.github.myrepositoryname
net.sf.sourceforge.myproject
com.googlecode.myproject

Benefits:

your package namespace will be unique, since the hosting provider won't have two projects of the same name
it's only as expensive as the host's costs, many of which are free
it can be an easy way to fulfil Sonatype's requirements if you want to get your project into Maven Central

Drawbacks:

if you decide to change providers, you either have package structures which are out-of-date, or you introduce backward-incompatible changes to keep the source in line with your new provider

edited Sep 21 '12 at 18:15

answered Sep 21 '12 at 18:09

Grundlefleck

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+1 it's a good point, I'd use it as a back up to using my email due to the drawback, but it's another good way to do this. Thanks! – Mike Sep 21 '12 at 19:21
@Mike just don't change your email address ;-) – Grundlefleck Sep 22 '12 at 10:17

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 21 '12 at 18:09

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Domain names can be had for free. For example dyn.com offers free domain names of the form 'whatever.dyndns.org' at http://free.domain.name/

answered Sep 21 '12 at 18:09

GreyBeardedGeek

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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 21 '12 at 18:19

If you are the only coder, you can just use your name. My name is Jannis Froese, so I would use

jannisfroese.projectname.stuff

or if you want to stay with 'valid' domain names

localhost.jannisfroese.projectname.stuff

(localhost is a reserved top level domain)

Of course this only works if your name is sufficiently unique, so that a collision is unlikely enough

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 21 '12 at 18:08

In a professional environment, the convention is to use reverse domain. In an environment that's more associated with yourself, you can use org.projectname.packagename.*.

It's a convention, not a hard and fast rule. You're free to use whichever domain naming style you like.

What's the convention for java package names without a domain association?

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