I was going through spring-boot-maven-plugin documentation and came across a term auto executable jar.
Could someone please explain me what is an auto executable jar and how is it different then normal jar files and how they are auto executed?
spring-boot-maven-plugin documentation mentions the term but does not go further to explain it
repackage: create a jar or war file that is auto-executable. It can replace the regular artifact or can be attached to the build lifecycle with a separate classifier.
Could someone please explain me what is an auto executable jar
A fully executable jar can be executed like any other executable
binary or it can be registered with init.d or systemd. This makes it
very easy to install and manage Spring Boot applications in common
production environments.
So In conclusion is like any other executable when you use a executable jar
how is it different then normal jar files and how they are auto executed?
Well a java file you need to run with java -jar
From Spring Docs
The Maven build of a Springboot application first build your own application and pack it into a JAR file.
In the second stage (repackage) it will wrap that jar with all the jar files from the dependency tree into a new wrapper jar archive. It will also generate a Manifest file where is defined what's the application Main class is (also in the wrapper jar).
After mvn package you can also see 2 jar files in your target directory. The original file and the wrapped jar file.
You can start a Springboot application with a simple command like:
java -jar my-springboot-app.jar
I may suggest that auto executable means that you supplied main method so that it can be launched with java -jar options, otherwise it may be just a java library.
Here is a quote from https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/maven-plugin/repackage-mojo.html
Repackages existing JAR and WAR archives so that they can be executed from the command line using java -jar. With layout=NONE can also be used simply to package a JAR with nested dependencies (and no main class, so not executable).
Executable jar - the one that has main class declared in manifest and can be run with java -jar yourJarFile.jar command
Other jars - jars jars without delcared main calss. Can be anything - application, library, etc. Still can run application by providing fully.qualified.class.name as entry point like java -cp yourJarFile.jar my.bootstrap.BootstrapClass
Autoexecutable jars - never heard about it :)
Related
I have a jar file that is being created by Spring Boot. Application runs smoothly when run by command java -jar. I want to create an install anywhere launcher with this jar file.
What I have tried is to send the Spring Boot main class (PropertiesLauncher). The issue is that calling it like this won't load the nested jars inside my executable jar and also the loader.path doesn't seems to work.
Is there a way to call the executable jar like java -jar from the install anywhere launcher?
I was thinking that another option was to create an install anywhere launcher for a script file and inside have the java -jar call. So another question will be:
How do I create an install anywhere launcher for a script file?
'execute command' step will do the trick:
Use this command line:
java -jar <path.to.jar.file>
Use EXECUTE_STDOUT, EXECUTE_STDERR and EXECUTE_EXITCODE built-in variables to catch errors and parse the jar's execution result.
Important notes:
You'll have to make sure your jar includes all of the dependencies (or at least set the classpath in the command line);
To include the dependencies within your jar using eclipse you can:
Export your project as a 'runnable jar file' and select the
'Extract/Package required libraries into generated JAR' option/s
Use Maven to build the project with dependencies; the
maven-assembly-plugin is required.
The 'execute command' will work for batch/cmd/shell scripts as well, but you'll have to make sure the scripts are extracted to a local folder such as %TEMP% or /tmp before you can use them.
Goodluck
I have a Java console application, till now it was developed in Netbeans IDE. When Netbeans builds application, it creates dist directory and builds an app into this directory as a jar archive and into dist/lib copies all dependencies. This this directory could be copied into final destination and run.
Now I'm trying to transfer this project into Maven. Everything goes ok, I can compile and package my app and a jar is created into target directory. I use maven-jar-plugin to set main class in manifest and maven-shade-plugin to package all sources into one jar file.
I would like to ask you how is such Maven project deployed in the real world? Should I use all target directory, copy it ad the final destination and run as I have been used to do with Netbeans? What are consequences when I don't use maven-shade-plugin - where are all libraries defined as dependencies located? I am asking, because in my testing project these libraries don't exist in target directory.
My question - I have a Java console application "A" packaged via Maven (without maven-shade-plugin) and Linux server "S" where this application should run. Can I copy all target directory manually to server "S" or is there some better / more automatic way how is this solved in the real world?
Simply copying over the target directory will not solve your problem. I have packaged many standalone applications using Maven and I have used Maven Assembly Plugin for it. You can create a distribution archive (zip, tar.gz) using the assembly plugin which your customer can unzip and start running.
It depends on you, how you want your target application directory structure (release). I usually end up with something like
bin/
conf/
lib/
log/
The bin directory contains a shell / batch script to run your program by calling your main class, setting appropriate classpath, providing relevant memory settings etc. I prefer using classworlds (which is used by Maven) to bootstrap my application and simplify writing of start scripts.
conf directory contains configuration files for your application as well as logging configuration files like log4j etc. This directory I add on classpath to make it easier to access configuration resources at runtime.
lib directory contains all the dependency jars a well as jar file for your code.
log is where your logging configuration will point to output log files.
Note that this structure is good for standalone server like applications. Also having a bin directory and run scripts allows you to add this directory to PATH on Windows / Linux to ensure you can run the application from anywhere.
If you are packaging a command line utility, simple shaded jar may work for you. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of java -jar application.jar
The question is too broad to be answered comprehensively, but I would like to provide an example of real-world maven deployment.
There are maven plugins for all major application servers. They have defined targets for local and remote deployment. One such plugin is the jboss-as-maven plugin. You can define the deployment properties (IP, port etc.) in your .pom or directly from command line, e.g.
mvn jboss-as:deploy -Dpassword=mypassword
There is also the cargo plugin that specializes in application deployment.
I'm very new to Java. I have a single class file which is used to do some processing.
That class file is depended on a jar. I'm very new to Java, where I'm passing the jar to my classpath while running the program:
javac -classpath jar MyProgram.java
Now I wish to bundle both the jar and MyProgram into separate jar with dependency resolved.
Are there any ways to do this in Java? Note that it my MyProgram java is only around 50 lines of code, so some simple solution will be good.
Thanks in advance.
You cannot put the library JAR inside another JAR file - Java will not be able to load classes from embedded JAR files.
You could create a JAR file containing just the classes of your application, and have the library JAR alongside it. See Packaging Programs in JAR Files for details on how to do this exactly.
If you really want everything to be in a single JAR file, you could use a tool such as One-JAR to package it.
You should not bundle both your compiled code and the dependency in a separate jar. You should bundle only your compiled classes in a jar and when running the program, you put both your jar and the dependency in the classpath.
Use the jar command to build your jar file and then use the command below to run your program:
java -classpath dependecy.jar;yourjar.jar MyProgram
I have a Java project in Eclipse with class MainClass having main method in package :
com.nik.mypackage.
The project also references two external libraries, which I copied in the lib folder in Eclipse and then added to build path using ADD JAR function. The libraries being one.jar and two.jar
This library is in lib folder in eclipse and added to the build path.
I want to create a executable JAR of the application using ant script. So that user can access my application using command:
c:>java -jar MyProject-20111126.jar
I know about the Eclipse plugin which directly exports a java application as runnable JAR. But I want to learn ant and the build process so manually want to create the build.xm.
You have two options from your build.xml. You can either unjar the library jars and then bundle their contents with the code compiled for your application. Or, you can put the library jars on the filesystem and supply a ClassPath entry in the manifest file of the MyProject-2011126.jar file.
If you set the classpath in the manifest remember that the path you supply is relative to the MyProject-2011126.jar.
one alternative:
Instead of having only a jar, you build mutiple jars (your jar + libs) +batch file.
So, your built package can be like this structure:
-/package/bin/app.bat
/package/lib/my.jar
/package/lib/one.jar
/package/lib/two.jar
In app.bat you just have the same as your code
java -jar MyProject-20111126.jar
PS: if you want to start learning built tools, ANT may be a bit tool old. I suggest http://maven.apache.org/
Please try one-jar. It helps to redistribute everything packaged as single jar and comes with ant-task . See Easiest way to merge a release into one JAR file.
I created a JAR file from my java project.
Using Eclipse, I added a JAR as a referenced library in my own project.
However, now when I try to run my program's JAR using java -jar myProgram.jar, I get an exception stating that my referenced jar is not available.
So how can I create a JAR consisting a reference to a different JAR and make it work?
Right, an executable JAR cannot contain its own JAR dependencies.
You have to have the main class and classpath set in the executable JAR manifest, then package all your JAR dependencies along with the executable JAR in a relative directory structure that matches the manifest CLASSPATH. Reading this might help.
You need to use Eclipse's runnable JAR exporter. Since Eclipse 3.5 you've the following options when you rightclick project, choose Export > Runnable JAR file:
Either way, Eclipse should take care that you'll be able to run the JAR the way you want on the exported location.
See jarjar project. It is exactly what you are looking for. http://code.google.com/p/jarjar/