The Java Module System specifies a distribution format for collections of Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

 code and associated resources. It also specifies a repository for storing these collections, or modules, and identifies how they can be discovered, loaded and checked for integrity. It includes features such as versioning and namespaces with the aim of fixing some of the shortcomings in the existing JAR

JAR (file format)

In software, JAR is an archive file format typically used to aggregate many Java class files and associated metadata and resources into one file to distribute application software or libraries on the Java platform.JAR files are built on the ZIP file format and have the .jar file extension...

 format, especially the JAR Hell, which can lead to issues such as classpath and class loading problems.

The Java Module System is being developed under the Java Community Process

Java Community Process

The Java Community Process or JCP, established in 1998, is a formalized process that allows interested parties to get involved in the definition of future versions and features of the Java platform....

as JSR 277.