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how can I run a jar from /usr/local/bin like a Terminal command?

I have made a calculator CLI calculator app in Java that I would like to use. Since I am actually going to use it quite often, I do not like the idea of typing the long path all the time.
I have read an article on StackoverFlow that you can place a .sh command into the /usr/bin folder, but after the El Capitan update, all System folders are locked even for the root user. So, again, I did some more research, and I found that /usr/local/bin folder is specifically made for "home-made" commands for the terminal. I have made a calculator.sh file with the following code:
#!/bin/sh
-jar /Users/mac/Desktop/Данила/my_apps/calculator.jar "$*"
The article said that I should place it in the /usr/bin folder, but because it is locked, I placed it in the /usr/local/bin, thinking that it is practically the same thing, and that it should work. Of course after I placed it in there and tried to run "calculator" command in the terminal, it did not work at all. I figured that it might need a "chmod" command to make it work. So I used chmod +x /path, but afterwards it still would not work. Right now I am stumped, so any help would be welcome.

First, is /usr/local/bin on your path? echo $PATH to find out.
Second, are you sure you pasted the above script properly?
It seems to be missing java on the command line.
I would expect it to look something like:
#!/bin/sh
java -jar /Users/mac/Desktop/Данила/my_apps/calculator.jar "$*"
Also, since you named it calculator.sh, you have to run it using that name.
The .sh extension isn't needed, so you could just call it calculator.

To this I recommend you create an alias.
alias test="java -jar /full/path/to/jar.jar"
And "test" is a command now, if you like get this command allways add it into .bash_profile.

Making a "macro" command to run a program

I have a Main.java file and I want to run the program passing it test.txt
I know in command line I can write javac Main.java
After compiling I can write java Main test.txt and this will accomplish running the file and passing test.txt
If I wanted instead to be able to just write main test.txt and have that trigger my Main.class file to run is that possible and if so how?

(Edit: Based on your comment, let me expand to add a couple more situations)
If your goal is to have someone else run your program who does not have Java installed, and you do not wish to have them install a Java runtime environment before running your app, what you need is a program that converts the .class or .jar files into a native executable for the platform you are using. How to do this has been covered in other questions, eg: Compiling a java program into an executable . Essentially, you use a program like JCG (GNU Compiler for Java) or Excelsior JET (a commercial product) to expand the byte code into full native code with a mini-JRE built in.
If your goal is to save typing, there are a number of strategies. Others have suggested alias commands, which work well on linux.
A slightly more portable option that you could ship with your program would be a shell script. Granted, shell scripts only run on linux or other OS's with shell script interpreters installed.
Here is an example shell script. You paste this into a text editor and save it as main with no extensio. The $1 passes the parameter argument fyi.
#!/bin/sh
java Main $1
presuming you name your shell script just "main" with no extension, you could call main test.txt to execute your program now.
If you are on Windows, you might want to create a windows shortcut, and point the shortcut to "java Main test.text", using the full paths if necessary (if the paths are not already set). Of course, this does not make the parameter easy to change every time you run it, you would have to edit the shortcut.

add an alias
e.g. under a mac edit your .bash_profile with the following line
alias main='java main'
don't forget to open a new console to see your alias working

Depends on your operating system. On Linux with the bash shell, for instance, you can set up an alias to expand your main into java -cp myjar.jar main.
Linux can also be configured to 'understand' Java class flies as a binary format directly see here (linux kernel documentation).
If you're on windows, you'll have to wait for answer from someone with more knowledge about that than I.
Good luck!

How do I open a .bat containing a GUI in a java program in Linux?

everyone. I'm quite new here so please be tolerant if I make any mistakes.
I have a .bat file containing a command line to open up a .jar file that contains a program that has a GUI in it. The only line that's in the .bat file is:
java -jar "NewServer.jar"
I've been trying to use Runtime() to get this to run, but most the instructions I find to open a .bat file in a java program are for Windows. I'm currently using Fedora 12 (don't tell me to upgrade, I can't) if that makes a difference and programming using Eclipse. I also found this ProcessBuilder thing, but I couldn't get it to work so unless you have very explicit directions on how to use it, please don't include it in your answer. I would much rather use Runtime. It looked simpler.
Here's my code to test using Runtime in a java program. I'm hoping that if I can get this to work, I can get it to work in my real program.
import java.io.IOException;
public class testbat {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Process proc = null;
try {
proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("./ myServer.bat");
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Cool");
}
The last line is just there for me to see if the program actually ran in case the GUI doesn't open. Also, I've already tried many combinations of things to include in the area after ".exec". I've tried using a path like "~/user/workspace/ProjectServer/dist/myServer.bat" to no avail.
I also already know that .bat files are for windows, but I'm able to execute it in linux, so I don't know if that makes a difference. I also tried using a .sh file the same way and it didn't work.
Please bear in mind that I'm not that great at Java, but I had to use it for this particular program, so if your answers could be really descriptive that would be awesome.

Just take that line out of the bat file, and run it. Yo're making it too hard.
$ java -jar "NewServer.jar"
will work. The quotes aren't necessary, so
$ java -jar NewServer.jar
will work as well. If you want to have the equivalent of your bat file, create a file named, say, run_newserver containing that line. Change its mode to executable:
$ cat > run_newserver
java -jar NewServer.jar
^D
$ chmod a+x run_newserver
$ ./run_newserver
Ideally, since you shouldn't have scripts without comments, do this. In your favorite editor, create a file run_newserver containing
#!/usr/bin/env bash
java -jar NewServer.jar
and chmod that. The line with #! -- often called a "shebang line" -- is UNIX magic that lets you say what interpreter you want. The program env in usr/bin finds your program and runs it (needed because different systems put bash in different directories.)
You could even put explanatory comments in the file too.
I'm a little unclear why you want to use Runtime#exec to run it at all -- it seems you'll just need a shell script to start that program.

Why are you using Java to run a Batch file, that in turn runs a Java program? Why have Batch in the loop at all? Just put the jar in your classpath and call it directly.

Batch (.bat) files are only for Windows environment. So, Try using shell script
Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("myServer.sh");

Just open up terminal and do this
vi /dir/to/exec/exec.sh
tap "i" and write this
#!/bin/sh
java -jar "NewServer.jar"
or if you want to run it in the background
#!/bin/sh
java -jar "NewServer.jar" & > /tmp/JavaServer.log
hit esc and type ":wq" and you have saved the file.
type this into the terminal
chmod +x /dir/to/exec/exec.sh
this give executable privileges and then you should run the file like
sh /dir/to/exec/exec.sh

Process is only initialized by your first call. You need to run:
proc.waitfor();
to get it to actually run your app.

Java option -XX:OnOutOfMemoryError does not work when called through exec in bash script

I have a java application and I want to run a script whenever it experiences and OutOfMemoryException
This works great:
$ java -server -XX:OnOutOfMemoryError="./oom_script %p" TestOOMClass
Unfortunately my application is run by a bash script in production. The script boils down to this:
cmd='java -server -XX:OnOutOfMemoryError="./oom_script %p" TestOOMClass'
##does a lot of checking and cmd building here
exec -a app ${cmd}
When run like this java never respects the double quotes and thinks %p is the class. how do I prevent this? I've tried double escaping but that doesn't work.

Since your program is run as a shell script, I would suggest putting this as the first line in your shell script after the shebang:
set -xv
Then, in the crontab, put 2>&1 at the end of the command line, so STDERR and STDOUT are merged. Crontab usually emails out the STDOUT of a command to root, so you can see what the output is. If not, then apend the following to the end of the command in your crontab:
> /somedir/output.$$ 2>&1
Make sure somedir exists, and after crontab runs your command, you'll see the verbose and debug output. Each line in your shell script will be displayed before it is executed -- both as written and as the shell actually interprets it.
The set -xv becomes very useful in debugging any sell script. There could be all sorts of environmental issues involved between the cronjob and the script running under your login. You might even find a shell issue. For example, crontab usually executes shell scripts in Bourne shell and you probably have Bash or Kornshell as your default shell. Whatever it is, you'll usually find out the issue very quickly when you turn on verbose/debug mode.
You don't even have to do this to the entire script. You can put set -xv anywhere in your script to turn on verbose/debug mode, and set +xv to turn it off.
I could make several pious high minded recommendations (use quotes, don't assume environment things, prefix your command line with "bash -c" to make sure you're using the right shell, etc.), but this would be guessing what could be wrong. In order to really debug this issue, I would need to see the machine, know the OS, see your entire shell script, and understand the entire environment. And, the first thing I would do is add set -xv in your shell script.

Quotes and escaping is an art. I would suggest you add echo ${cmd} before calling exec so you can see what it looks like then.
I would suggest using
cmd='java -server -XX:OnOutOfMemoryError=\\"./oom_script %p\\" TestOOMClass'
instead (untested). You need it to look like \" when being echoed.

an alternative i suggest (to bypass the problem, not solve it indeed) is to rung and bash script and access the $PPID:
PPID The process ID of the shell's parent. This variable is readonly.
then kill the process with that ID (please bare in mind that is an untested suggestion)

Execute .jar from Python

I am trying to build a very simple python script to automate minifying/combining some css/js assets.
I am not sure how to properly handle the minification step. I use yui-compressor and usually call the jar directly from the command line.
Assuming the build script is in the same directory as rhino js.jar and yui-compressor.jar, I'd be able to compress a css/js file like so:
java -cp js.jar -jar yuicompressor-2.4.4.jar -o css/foo.min.css css/foo.css
Calling that from the terminal works fine, but in the python build file, it does not
eg, os.system("...")
The exit status being returned is 0, and no output is being returned from the command (for example, when using os.popen() instead of os.system())
I'm guessing it has something to do with paths, perhaps with java not resolving properly when calling to os.system()… any ideas?
Thanks for any help

I have a somewhat similar case, when I want a python program to build up some commands and then run them, with the output going to the user who fired off the script. The code I use is:
import subprocess
def run(cmd):
call = ["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd]
ret = subprocess.call(call, stdout=None, stderr=None)
if ret > 0:
print "Warning - result was %d" % ret
run("javac foo.java")
run("javac bar.java")
In my case, I want all commands to run error or not, which is why I don't have an exception raised on error. Also, I want any messages printed straight to the terminal, so I have stdout and stderr be None which causes them to not go to my python program. If your needs are slightly different for errors and messages, take a look at the http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html documentation for how to tweak what happens.
(I ask bash to run my command for me, so that I get my usual path, quoting etc)

os.system should return 0 when the command executes correctly. 0 is the standard return code for success.
Does it print output when run from the command line?

Why would you want to do this in Python? For tasks like this, especially Java, you are better off using Apache Ant. Write commands in xml and then ant runs for you.