al_version

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

 

This page describes content that has been removed from Java Edition.

 

This feature was present in earlier versions of Java Edition, but has since been removed.

al_version (AppletLoader version), saved on disc as version, is a number formerly used in versions as a caching identifier, to uniquely identify .jar files to be cached.

It is needed because the game used to be hosted on the Minecraft website as an applet. The al_version value was used to tell the LWJGL AppletLoader when to clear its cache so LWJGL and client jars could be updated automatically.

al_version is a number given as a parameter to the LWJGL AppletLoader in the HTML code of the applet page.^[1] It is used to specify a unique version for each jar file to cache them for re-use. (To save on downloads, the site would used a cached version on disc if the game is marked as being the same as the last time it was downloaded.) If the stored al_version matches the latest jar files, those jar files are re-used; otherwise the previously saved jars are removed from the cache and new ones are downloaded.

From Classic through most of Infdev, the al_version was a positive floating point number. Starting from Infdev 20100629, al_version proper was no longer used, however a caching ID still remained, taking the form of the current timestamp of the version's release.

The al_version may be found in the HTML of the game's web applet, as <param name="al_version" value="[al_version_id]" />

In Classic through Infdev, the al_version may be found on disc in the temporary directory as version. The subpath differs based on the applet page the game is being played on. See Applet § Storage locations.

Starting from Infdev 20100629, with the change from float al_version to a timestamped cache ID, it is now located on disc at %appdata%/.minecraft/bin/ (used by minecraft.net/game/ and the offline launcher).

[edit]

• Protocol version
• Data version

• AppletLoader documentation – Legacy LWJGL Javadocs