How to use maven to build an self-contained executable jar?

Question

I am using maven to build a java project. My project has a lot of dependencies. Now, I need to deploy this project on a server, so I want to create a self-contained executable jar, which includes all the dependencies. I went through an old question, where maven shade plugin was recommended, but I am wondering whether it is possible to do this just with maven. Is there a way I can create a self contained executable jar only by using maven?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 17 '17 at 10:11

I think what you need is fat jar or single jar. Add following to your pom file and change attribute

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.7</source>
                <target>1.7</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

        <!-- Skip the tests run. -->
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.15</version>
            <configuration>
                <skipTests>true</skipTests>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

        <!-- Sources generation -->
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.4</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>attach-sources</id>
                    <phase>verify</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>jar-no-fork</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.0</version>
            <configuration>
                <descriptorRefs>
                    <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                </descriptorRefs>
                <archive>
                    <manifest>
                        <mainClass>**********Put main class here********</mainClass>
                    </manifest>
                </archive>
            </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>
    </plugins>
</build>

Use mvn package as usual to build jar.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 17 '17 at 10:09

1

Here a link that explain how to build an executable JAR with maven :

https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-shade-plugin/examples/executable-jar.html

answered Mar 17 '17 at 10:09

Kikou

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This too is using the shade plugin. Is there a way to do this with just maven? – enitihas Mar 17 '17 at 10:11
1

Maven works with plugins ,shade allow you to create an executable JAR. Try using shade and if you got problems , just post – Kikou Mar 17 '17 at 10:15
1

Ok. I will try the shade plugin. – enitihas Mar 17 '17 at 10:25

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 17 '17 at 10:45

Others have already answered but here is an example pom.xml

<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/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.greg</groupId>
    <artifactId>blackbox-tester</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>

    <name>blackbox-tester</name>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
            <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
            <version>4.5.3</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
            <artifactId>httpcore</artifactId>
            <version>4.4.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
            <version>1.3.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
            <version>3.5</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.12</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.0.0</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>shade</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <transformers>
                                <transformer
                                        implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
                                    <manifestEntries>
                                        <Main-Class>com.greg.blackboxtester.Application</Main-Class>
                                    </manifestEntries>
                                </transformer>
                            </transformers>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>

        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

You can now run the jar with :

java -jar target/blackbox-tester-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar

How to use maven to build an self-contained executable jar?

3 Answers3