The docs for the jar -C option are not inconsistent with
the code, and of the two are probably the one in error.

In http://mirror.eng/products/jdk/1.2/docs/tooldocs/solaris/jar.html
it says:
-C
            Changes directories during execution of jar command. For example,

                  jar uf foo.jar -C classes *

            would add all files within the classes directory, but not the classes directory itself, to foo.jar.


In fact, -C only applies to the next file (* in the example might expand to a list)

See the man page for tar (yes, Tar) to see a more accurate description
of what the -C option actually does.