Java – Building executable jar with maven

build-processeclipseexecutable-jarjavamaven-2

I am trying to generate an executable jar for a small home project called "logmanager" using maven, just like this:

How can I create an executable JAR with dependencies using Maven?

I added the snippet shown there to the pom.xml, and ran mvn assembly:assembly. It generates two jar files in logmanager/target: logmanager-0.1.0.jar, and logmanager-0.1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar. I get an error when I double-click on the first jar:

Could not find the main class: com.gorkwobble.logmanager.LogManager. Program will exit.

A slightly different error when I double-click the jar-with-dependencies.jar:

Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from: C:\EclipseProjects\logmanager\target\logmanager-0.1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar

I copied and pasted the path and classname, and checked the spelling in the POM. My main class launches fine from an eclipse launch configuration. Can someone help me figure out why my jar file won't run? Also, why are there two jars to begin with? Let me know if you need more information.

Here is the full pom.xml, for reference:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.gorkwobble</groupId>
  <artifactId>logmanager</artifactId>
  <name>LogManager</name>
  <version>0.1.0</version>
  <description>Systematically renames specified log files on a scheduled basis. Designed to help manage MUSHClient logging and prevent long, continuous log files.</description>
  <build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.2</version>
            <!-- nothing here -->
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.2-beta-4</version>
            <configuration>
              <descriptorRefs>
                <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
              </descriptorRefs>
              <archive>
                <manifest>
                  <mainClass>com.gorkwobble.logmanager.LogManager</mainClass>
                </manifest>
              </archive>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
              <execution>
                <phase>package</phase>
                <goals>
                  <goal>single</goal>
                </goals>
              </execution>
            </executions>
          </plugin>
          <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
              <source>1.6</source>
              <target>1.6</target>
            </configuration>
          </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  <dependencies>
    <!-- commons-lang -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-lang</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId>
        <version>2.4</version>
    </dependency> 

    <!-- Quartz scheduler -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>opensymphony</groupId>
        <artifactId>quartz</artifactId>
        <version>1.6.3</version>
    </dependency>
    <!-- Quartz 1.6.0 depends on commons collections -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>commons-collections</groupId>
      <artifactId>commons-collections</artifactId>
      <version>3.1</version>
    </dependency>
    <!-- Quartz 1.6.0 depends on commons logging -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
      <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
      <version>1.1</version>
    </dependency>
    <!-- Quartz 1.6.0 requires JTA in non J2EE environments -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>javax.transaction</groupId>
      <artifactId>jta</artifactId>
      <version>1.1</version>
      <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>

    <!-- junitx test assertions -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>junit-addons</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit-addons</artifactId>
        <version>1.4</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

    <!-- junit dependency; FIXME: make this a separate POM -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.1</version>
    </dependency>

  </dependencies>
  <dependencyManagement>
  </dependencyManagement>
</project>

Best Answer

Actually, I think that the answer given in the question you mentioned is just wrong (UPDATE - 20101106: someone fixed it, this answer refers to the version preceding the edit) and this explains, at least partially, why you run into troubles.

It generates two jar files in logmanager/target: logmanager-0.1.0.jar, and logmanager-0.1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar.

The first one is the JAR of the logmanager module generated during the package phase by jar:jar (because the module has a packaging of type jar). The second one is the assembly generated by assembly:assembly and should contain the classes from the current module and its dependencies (if you used the descriptor jar-with-dependencies).

I get an error when I double-click on the first jar:
Could not find the main class: com.gorkwobble.logmanager.LogManager. Program will exit.

If you applied the suggested configuration of the link posted as reference, you configured the jar plugin to produce an executable artifact, something like this:

  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
      <archive>
        <manifest>
          <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
          <mainClass>com.gorkwobble.logmanager.LogManager</mainClass>
        </manifest>
      </archive>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>

So logmanager-0.1.0.jar is indeed executable but 1. this is not what you want (because it doesn't have all dependencies) and 2. it doesn't contain com.gorkwobble.logmanager.LogManager (this is what the error is saying, check the content of the jar).

A slightly different error when I double-click the jar-with-dependencies.jar:
Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from: C:\EclipseProjects\logmanager\target\logmanager-0.1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar

Again, if you configured the assembly plugin as suggested, you have something like this:

  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
      <descriptorRefs>
        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
      </descriptorRefs>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>

With this setup, logmanager-0.1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar contains the classes from the current module and its dependencies but, according to the error, its META-INF/MANIFEST.MF doesn't contain a Main-Class entry (its likely not the same MANIFEST.MF as in logmanager-0.1.0.jar). The jar is actually not executable, which again is not what you want.

So, my suggestion would be to remove the configuration element from the maven-jar-plugin and to configure the maven-assembly-plugin like this:

  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.2</version>
    <!-- nothing here -->
  </plugin>
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.2-beta-4</version>
    <configuration>
      <descriptorRefs>
        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
      </descriptorRefs>
      <archive>
        <manifest>
          <mainClass>org.sample.App</mainClass>
        </manifest>
      </archive>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
      <execution>
        <phase>package</phase>
        <goals>
          <goal>single</goal>
        </goals>
      </execution>
    </executions>
  </plugin>

Of course, replace org.sample.App with the class you want to have executed. Little bonus, I've bound assembly:single to the package phase so you don't have to run assembly:assembly anymore. Just run mvn install and the assembly will be produced during the standard build.

So, please update your pom.xml with the configuration given above and run mvn clean install. Then, cd into the target directory and try again:

java -jar logmanager-0.1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar

If you get an error, please update your question with it and post the content of the META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file and the relevant part of your pom.xml (the plugins configuration parts). Also please post the result of:

java -cp logmanager-0.1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.gorkwobble.logmanager.LogManager

to demonstrate it's working fine on the command line (regardless of what eclipse is saying).

EDIT: For Java 6, you need to configure the maven-compiler-plugin. Add this to your pom.xml:

  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
      <source>1.6</source>
      <target>1.6</target>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>

Problems of popular approaches

Most of the answers you'll find around the internet will suggest you to either install the dependency to your local repository or specify a "system" scope in the pom and distribute the dependency with the source of your project. But both of these solutions are actually flawed.

Why you shouldn't apply the "Install to Local Repo" approach

When you install a dependency to your local repository it remains there. Your distribution artifact will do fine as long as it has access to this repository. The problem is in most cases this repository will reside on your local machine, so there'll be no way to resolve this dependency on any other machine. Clearly making your artifact depend on a specific machine is not a way to handle things. Otherwise this dependency will have to be locally installed on every machine working with that project which is not any better.

Why you shouldn't apply the "System Scope" approach

The jars you depend on with the "System Scope" approach neither get installed to any repository or attached to your target packages. That's why your distribution package won't have a way to resolve that dependency when used. That I believe was the reason why the use of system scope even got deprecated. Anyway you don't want to rely on a deprecated feature.

The static in-project repository solution

After putting this in your pom:

<repository>
    <id>repo</id>
    <releases>
        <enabled>true</enabled>
        <checksumPolicy>ignore</checksumPolicy>
    </releases>
    <snapshots>
        <enabled>false</enabled>
    </snapshots>
    <url>file://${project.basedir}/repo</url>
</repository>

for each artifact with a group id of form x.y.z Maven will include the following location inside your project dir in its search for artifacts:

repo/
| - x/
|   | - y/
|   |   | - z/
|   |   |   | - ${artifactId}/
|   |   |   |   | - ${version}/
|   |   |   |   |   | - ${artifactId}-${version}.jar

To elaborate more on this you can read this blog post.

Use Maven to install to project repo

Instead of creating this structure by hand I recommend to use a Maven plugin to install your jars as artifacts. So, to install an artifact to an in-project repository under repo folder execute:

mvn install:install-file -DlocalRepositoryPath=repo -DcreateChecksum=true -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=[your-jar] -DgroupId=[...] -DartifactId=[...] -Dversion=[...]

If you'll choose this approach you'll be able to simplify the repository declaration in pom to:

<repository>
    <id>repo</id>
    <url>file://${project.basedir}/repo</url>
</repository>

A helper script

Since executing installation command for each lib is kinda annoying and definitely error prone, I've created a utility script which automatically installs all the jars from a lib folder to a project repository, while automatically resolving all metadata (groupId, artifactId and etc.) from names of files. The script also prints out the dependencies xml for you to copy-paste in your pom.

Include the dependencies in your target package

When you'll have your in-project repository created you'll have solved a problem of distributing the dependencies of the project with its source, but since then your project's target artifact will depend on non-published jars, so when you'll install it to a repository it will have unresolvable dependencies.

To beat this problem I suggest to include these dependencies in your target package. This you can do with either the Assembly Plugin or better with the OneJar Plugin. The official documentaion on OneJar is easy to grasp.

Java – How to create an executable JAR with dependencies using Maven

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
      <configuration>
        <archive>
          <manifest>
            <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
          </manifest>
        </archive>
        <descriptorRefs>
          <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
        </descriptorRefs>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

and you run it with

mvn clean compile assembly:single

Compile goal should be added before assembly:single or otherwise the code on your own project is not included.

See more details in comments.

Commonly this goal is tied to a build phase to execute automatically. This ensures the JAR is built when executing mvn install or performing a deployment/release.

<plugin>
  <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
  <configuration>
    <archive>
      <manifest>
        <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
      </manifest>
    </archive>
    <descriptorRefs>
      <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
    </descriptorRefs>
  </configuration>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>make-assembly</id> <!-- this is used for inheritance merges -->
      <phase>package</phase> <!-- bind to the packaging phase -->
      <goals>
        <goal>single</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>