EAR (Enterprise Archive)

Da ich unlängst über WAR einen Artikel eingestellt habe, mache ich mir heute eine kurze Notiz zu EAR (Enterprise Archive) und JAR (Java Archive).
Im EE 5 Tutorial lese ich dazu unter Packaging Applications:

An EAR file (see Figure 1-6) contains Java EE modules and deployment descriptors. A deployment descriptor is an XML document with an .xml extension that describes the deployment settings of an application, a module, or a component. Because deployment descriptor information is declarative, it can be changed without the need to modify the source code. At runtime, the Java EE server reads the deployment descriptor and acts upon the application, module, or component accordingly.