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

Question

I want to package my project in a single executable JAR for distribution.

How can I make a Maven project package all dependency JARs into my output JAR?

Please explain which goal of the dependency plugin you are referring to. I know of no goal which does what the original question requests: to put all the dependencies either A) inside the authors jar via repackaging, or B) make an executable jar that has the others in a classpath of MANIFEST.MF — Matthew McCullough, Mar 11 '09 at 15:11
You might find this useful http://www.rationaljava.com/2015/02/maven-tip-all-about-executable-jars.html — Dan, Feb 02 '15 at 19:01
2 examples: http://www.tugay.biz/2015/12/a-standalone-java-web-application-with.html http://www.tugay.biz/2016/11/how-did-i-create-executable-jar-with.html — Koray Tugay, Mar 30 '17 at 06:54
Refer https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35217128/is-it-possible-to-build-a-java-project-only-once-using-eclipse-and-share/35359756#35359756 — Thanga, Sep 11 '17 at 08:18

score 2556 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 21 '13 at 08:37

2556

<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>

edited Feb 21 '13 at 08:37

Duncan Jones

59,308
24
169
227

answered Feb 22 '09 at 09:31

IAdapter

55,820
69
166
236

25

Thanks @IAdapter. Note that you should always do a compile before hand because it will just put whatever is in "target/classes" in the JAR. This will ensure that the JAR includes any changes you recently made to the source code. So, you should do something like: `mvn clean compile assembly:single`. – Michael May 31 '11 at 19:03
1

I've associated the assembly:single goal with the package phase in my project's pom.xml, but it works only when I do a mvn assembly:single from the command line. – Sahil Dave Oct 23 '13 at 14:55
Is here any way I can direct the to a class under the test directory? I have a main class under org.core (the directory structure exists under main and test) but maven only includes compiled classes from main and not test. – Prashant Vaidyanathan Jul 16 '14 at 02:10
Can we use this metod for java fx jar. Our the default ant jar task is better. But i am facing issues of dependencies with ant jar task.look my Question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25915793/using-maven-ant-plugin-in-javafx-application-how-to-add-dependencies-in-javafx – Mubasher Sep 18 '14 at 16:56
3

I see that this doesn't add the jars to the uber jar, instead this just adds all the class files to the jar. – pitchblack408 Apr 07 '15 at 16:31
191

Tip: you can also add the element `false` into the `configuration` to avoid the annoying "-jar-with-dependencies" suffix in the name – maxivis May 06 '15 at 19:22
9

forget `compile` and you are screwed. – prayagupd Nov 13 '16 at 00:44
maven assembly plugin could introduce some issues because could override some dependencies, so I cannot tell you to use it! Use the maven Shade plugin instead which works very nice for us. We spent some days to found that the maven assembly plugin overrides some dependencies which break application jar. Have a look there : https://www.mkyong.com/maven/create-a-fat-jar-file-maven-shade-plugin/ – user3774109 Mar 09 '17 at 15:07
8 levels of wrapping is insane overdoing it – Niklas R. Nov 21 '17 at 21:48
1

@maxivis Doing this seems to work but generates some warnings. – Raffi Khatchadourian Feb 01 '18 at 22:41
2

what if i don't have main method or class, i just need some random java file to be jar? – parlad Jul 20 '18 at 11:02
@parladneupane leave out the ... portion – gerardw Oct 24 '18 at 16:27
He do not asked to use plugings, maven should be able compile with dependencies itself without strange commands and plugings – Nov 20 '18 at 22:04
4

@user10201743 Just to give a little context: _Everything_ in Maven is a plugin. The compiler? `maven-compiler-plugin`. Tests? `maven-surefire-plugin`. These two, including the assembly, are official maven plugins, so they might as well be considered as part of maven (esp. cause, at least now, all three of them are in your effective POM by default). – Adowrath Mar 16 '19 at 18:09
I ran into this with the alexa-skills-kit-sdk-for-java which worked well until the instructions to create the WAR barfed in Maven. In 'Developing Your First Skill' it says enter the line command 'mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-assembly-plugin:2.6:assembly -DdescriptorId=jar-with-dependencies package' which does not work. I put the above plug-in in the 'highest POM' (closest to the root file) and ran the line command 'mvn clean compile assembly:single' from that POM (directory) and it worked perfectly. – Richard Bradley Smith May 25 '19 at 01:16
1

For example if your main class path is `src/main/java/com/example/ui/Main.java`, you must write like that to pom.xml: `com.example.ui.Main`. – Halil İbrahim Oymacı Mar 31 '20 at 09:25
Thank you men, it was useful – Alejandro Gonzalez Jul 22 '20 at 17:53
I got into trouble with this because I kept placing my various attempts using different plugin under build pluginManagement plugins instead of build plugins. Of course, there are no error messages to tell you about this mistake. – Jack D Menendez Dec 06 '20 at 20:05
And in case you're new here, you would run that new compiled program using: `java -jar target/*with-dependencies.jar` and you can add any command line arguments you want to pass to your program. – William Entriken Feb 19 '21 at 01:07

score 369 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 23 '14 at 12:08

You can use the dependency-plugin to generate all dependencies in a separate directory before the package phase and then include that in the classpath of the manifest:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>copy-dependencies</id>
            <phase>prepare-package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/lib</outputDirectory>
                <overWriteReleases>false</overWriteReleases>
                <overWriteSnapshots>false</overWriteSnapshots>
                <overWriteIfNewer>true</overWriteIfNewer>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <archive>
            <manifest>
                <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                <classpathPrefix>lib/</classpathPrefix>
                <mainClass>theMainClass</mainClass>
            </manifest>
        </archive>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Alternatively use ${project.build.directory}/classes/lib as OutputDirectory to integrate all jar-files into the main jar, but then you will need to add custom classloading code to load the jars.

Jin Kwon · Answer 3 · 2021-02-08T10:23:21.507

See executable-jar-with-maven-example (GitHub)

Notes

Those pros and cons are provided by Stephan.

For Manual Deployment

Pros
Cons
- Dependencies are out of the final jar.

Copy Dependencies to a specific directory

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>copy-dependencies</id>
      <phase>prepare-package</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}.lib</outputDirectory>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

Make the Jar Executable and Classpath Aware

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
  <configuration>
    <archive>
      <manifest>
        <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
        <classpathPrefix>${project.build.finalName}.lib/</classpathPrefix>
        <mainClass>${fully.qualified.main.class}</mainClass>
      </manifest>
    </archive>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

At this point the jar is actually executable with external classpath elements.

$ java -jar target/${project.build.finalName}.jar

Make Deployable Archives

The jar file is only executable with the sibling ...lib/ directory. We need to make archives to deploy with the directory and its content.

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>antrun-archive</id>
      <phase>package</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>run</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        <target>
          <property name="final.name" value="${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}"/>
          <property name="archive.includes" value="${project.build.finalName}.${project.packaging} ${project.build.finalName}.lib/*"/>
          <property name="tar.destfile" value="${final.name}.tar"/>
          <zip basedir="${project.build.directory}" destfile="${final.name}.zip" includes="${archive.includes}" />
          <tar basedir="${project.build.directory}" destfile="${tar.destfile}" includes="${archive.includes}" />
          <gzip src="${tar.destfile}" destfile="${tar.destfile}.gz" />
          <bzip2 src="${tar.destfile}" destfile="${tar.destfile}.bz2" />
        </target>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

Now you have target/${project.build.finalName}.(zip|tar|tar.bz2|tar.gz) which each contains the jar and lib/*.

Apache Maven Assembly Plugin

Pros
Cons
- No class relocation support (use maven-shade-plugin if class relocation is needed).

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <phase>package</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>single</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        <archive>
          <manifest>
            <mainClass>${fully.qualified.main.class}</mainClass>
          </manifest>
        </archive>
        <descriptorRefs>
          <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
        </descriptorRefs>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

You have target/${project.bulid.finalName}-jar-with-dependencies.jar.

Apache Maven Shade Plugin

Pros
Cons

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <goals>
        <goal>shade</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        <shadedArtifactAttached>true</shadedArtifactAttached>
        <transformers>
          <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
            <mainClass>${fully.qualified.main.class}</mainClass>
          </transformer>
        </transformers>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

You have target/${project.build.finalName}-shaded.jar.

onejar-maven-plugin

Pros
Cons
- Not actively supported since 2012.

<plugin>
  <!--groupId>org.dstovall</groupId--> <!-- not available on the central -->
  <groupId>com.jolira</groupId>
  <artifactId>onejar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <configuration>
        <mainClass>${fully.qualified.main.class}</mainClass>
        <attachToBuild>true</attachToBuild>
        <!-- https://code.google.com/p/onejar-maven-plugin/issues/detail?id=8 -->
        <!--classifier>onejar</classifier-->
        <filename>${project.build.finalName}-onejar.${project.packaging}</filename>
      </configuration>
      <goals>
        <goal>one-jar</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

Spring Boot Maven Plugin

Pros
Cons
- Add potential unecessary Spring and Spring Boot related classes.

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <goals>
        <goal>repackage</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        <classifier>spring-boot</classifier>
        <mainClass>${fully.qualified.main.class}</mainClass>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

You have target/${project.bulid.finalName}-spring-boot.jar.

score 145 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 28 '12 at 16:59

Taking Unanswered's answer and reformatting it, we have:

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

Next, I would recommend making this a natural part of your build, rather than something to call explicitly. To make this a integral part of your build, add this plugin to your pom.xml and bind it to the package lifecycle event. However, a gotcha is that you need to call the assembly:single goal if putting this in your pom.xml, while you would call 'assembly:assembly' if executing it manually from the command line.

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
      <plugins>
          <plugin>
              <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
              <configuration>
                  <archive>
                      <manifest>
                          <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                          <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
                      </manifest>
                  </archive>
                  <descriptorRefs>
                      <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                  </descriptorRefs>
              </configuration>
              <executions>
                  <execution>
                      <id>make-my-jar-with-dependencies</id>
                      <phase>package</phase>
                      <goals>
                          <goal>single</goal>
                      </goals>
                  </execution>
              </executions>
          </plugin>
      [...]
      </plugins>
    [...]
  </build>
</project>

score 100 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 10 '12 at 16:07

Use the maven-shade-plugin to package all dependencies into one uber-jar. It can also be used to build an executable jar by specifying the main class. After trying to use maven-assembly and maven-jar , I found that this plugin best suited my needs.

I found this plugin particularly useful as it merges content of specific files instead of overwriting them. This is needed when there are resource files that are have the same name across the jars and the plugin tries to package all the resource files

See example below

      <plugins>
    <!-- This plugin provides the capability to package the artifact in an uber-jar, including its dependencies and to shade - i.e. rename - the packages of some of the dependencies. -->
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>1.4</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>shade</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <artifactSet>
                        <!-- signed jars-->
                            <excludes>
                                <exclude>bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15</exclude>
                            </excludes>
                        </artifactSet>

                         <transformers>
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
                                <!-- Main class -->
                                <mainClass>com.main.MyMainClass</mainClass>
                            </transformer>
                            <!-- Use resource transformers to prevent file overwrites -->
                            <transformer 
                                 implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                                <resource>properties.properties</resource>
                            </transformer>
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.XmlAppendingTransformer">
                                <resource>applicationContext.xml</resource>
                            </transformer>
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                                <resource>META-INF/cxf/cxf.extension</resource>
                            </transformer>
                            <transformer
                                implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.XmlAppendingTransformer">
                                <resource>META-INF/cxf/bus-extensions.xml</resource>
                            </transformer>
                     </transformers>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

    </plugins>

score 21 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 10 '19 at 06:07

21

You can use maven-shade plugin to build a uber jar like below

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>shade</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

edited Jul 10 '19 at 06:07

Paul Rooney

17,518
8
35
57

answered Oct 26 '17 at 00:57

Minisha

1,643
2
18
38

score 21 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:33

Long used the maven assembly plugin, but I could not find a solution to the problem with "already added, skipping". Now, I'm using another plugin - onejar-maven-plugin. Example below (mvn package build jar):

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.dstovall</groupId>
    <artifactId>onejar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.3.0</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <configuration>
                <mainClass>com.company.MainClass</mainClass>
            </configuration>
            <goals>
                <goal>one-jar</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

You need to add repository for that plugin:

<pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>onejar-maven-plugin.googlecode.com</id>
        <url>http://onejar-maven-plugin.googlecode.com/svn/mavenrepo</url>
    </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>

score 19 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 13 '09 at 12:16

You can use maven-dependency-plugin, but the question was how to create an executable JAR. To do that requires the following alteration to Matthew Franglen's response (btw, using the dependency plugin takes longer to build when starting from a clean target):

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <archive>
                    <manifest>
                        <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
                    </manifest>
                </archive>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>unpack-dependencies</id>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>unpack-dependencies</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
    <resources>
        <resource>
            <directory>${basedir}/target/dependency</directory>
        </resource>
    </resources>
</build>

Matthew McCullough · Answer 9 · 2009-03-11T15:20:35.130

16

Another option if you really want to repackage the other JARs contents inside your single resultant JAR is the Maven Assembly plugin. It unpacks and then repacks everything into a directory via <unpack>true</unpack>. Then you'd have a second pass that built it into one massive JAR.

Another option is the OneJar plugin. This performs the above repackaging actions all in one step.

edited Mar 11 '09 at 15:20

answered Mar 11 '09 at 15:12

Matthew McCullough

15,476
7
36
37

score 16 · Answer 10 · answered Aug 13 '11 at 18:23

You can add the following to your pom.xml:

<build>
<defaultGoal>install</defaultGoal>
<plugins>
  <plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.2</version>
    <configuration>
      <source>1.6</source>
      <target>1.6</target>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.1</version>
    <configuration>
      <archive>
        <manifest>
          <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
          <mainClass>com.mycompany.package.MainClass</mainClass>
        </manifest>
      </archive>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>
  <plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
      <descriptorRefs>
        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
      </descriptorRefs>
      <archive>
        <manifest>
          <mainClass>com.mycompany.package.MainClass</mainClass>
        </manifest>
      </archive>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
      <execution>
        <id>make-my-jar-with-dependencies</id>
        <phase>package</phase>
        <goals>
          <goal>single</goal>
        </goals>
      </execution>
    </executions>
  </plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

Afterwards you have to switch via the console to the directory, where the pom.xml is located. Then you have to execute mvn assembly:single and then your executable JAR file with dependencies will be hopefully build. You can check it when switching to the output (target) directory with cd ./target and starting your jar with a command similiar to java -jar mavenproject1-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar.

I tested this with Apache Maven 3.0.3.

dsutherland · Answer 11 · 2015-11-23T22:04:39.363

I went through every one of these responses looking to make a fat executable jar containing all dependencies and none of them worked right. The answer is the shade plugin, its very easy and straightforward.

    <plugin>
      <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
      <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.3</version>
      <executions>
         <!-- Run shade goal on package phase -->
        <execution>
        <phase>package</phase>
        <goals>
            <goal>shade</goal>
        </goals>
        <configuration>
          <transformers>
             <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
                <mainClass>path.to.MainClass</mainClass>
             </transformer>
          </transformers>
        </configuration>
          </execution>
      </executions>
    </plugin>

Be aware that your dependencies need to have a scope of compile or runtime for this to work properly.

This example came from mkyong.com

score 13 · Answer 12 · edited Jan 31 '13 at 00:24

You could combine the maven-shade-plugin and maven-jar-plugin.

The maven-shade-plugin packs your classes and all dependencies in a single jar file.
Configure the maven-jar-plugin to specify the main class of your executable jar (see Set Up The Classpath, chapter "Make The Jar Executable").

Example POM configuration for maven-jar-plugin:

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.2</version>
            <configuration>
                <archive>
                    <manifest>
                        <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        <mainClass>com.example.MyMainClass</mainClass>
                    </manifest>
                </archive>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

Finally create the executable jar by invoking:

mvn clean package shade:shade

The Shade plugin now has means of specifying the Main-Class entry in the manifest: http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-shade-plugin/examples/executable-jar.html — Chadwick, Feb 27 '12 at 21:35

score 10 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 09 '09 at 13:37

Ken Liu has it right in my opinion. The maven dependency plugin allows you to expand all the dependencies, which you can then treat as resources. This allows you to include them in the main artifact. The use of the assembly plugin creates a secondary artifact which can be difficult to modify - in my case I wanted to add custom manifest entries. My pom ended up as:

<project>
 ...
 <build>
  <plugins>
   <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
     <execution>
      <id>unpack-dependencies</id>
      <phase>package</phase>
      <goals>
       <goal>unpack-dependencies</goal>
      </goals>
     </execution>
    </executions>
   </plugin>
  </plugins>
  ...
  <resources>
   <resource>
    <directory>${basedir}/target/dependency</directory>
    <targetPath>/</targetPath>
   </resource>
  </resources>
 </build>
 ...
</project>

score 10 · Answer 14 · edited Jul 10 '19 at 06:07

10

It should be like that:

<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>unpack-dependencies</id>
            <phase>generate-resources</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>unpack-dependencies</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

Unpacking have to be in generate-resources phase because, if in package phase, will not be included as resources. Try clean package and you'll see.

edited Jul 10 '19 at 06:07

Paul Rooney

17,518
8
35
57

answered Mar 05 '10 at 15:39

kac-ani

101
1
2

Getting this issue: org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:3.1.2:unpack-dependencies (unpack-dependencies) on project services: Unknown archiver type – MoHaN K RaJ Dec 15 '20 at 12:34

score 8 · Answer 15 · edited Jan 31 '13 at 00:26

Problem with locating shared assembly file with maven-assembly-plugin-2.2.1?

Try using descriptorId configuration parameter instead of descriptors/descriptor or descriptorRefs/descriptorRef parameters.

Neither of them do what you need: look for the file on classpath. Of course you need adding the package where the shared assembly resides on maven-assembly-plugin's classpath (see below). If you're using Maven 2.x (not Maven 3.x), you may need adding this dependency in top-most parent pom.xml in pluginManagement section.

See this for more details.

Class: org.apache.maven.plugin.assembly.io.DefaultAssemblyReader

Example:

        <!-- Use the assembly plugin to create a zip file of all our dependencies. -->
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.2.1</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>make-assembly</id>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>single</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <descriptorId>assembly-zip-for-wid</descriptorId>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <dependencies>
                <dependency>
                    <groupId>cz.ness.ct.ip.assemblies</groupId>
                    <artifactId>TEST_SharedAssemblyDescriptor</artifactId>
                    <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
                </dependency>
            </dependencies>
        </plugin>

score 7 · Answer 16 · answered Sep 01 '16 at 10:21

To resolve this issue we will use Maven Assembly Plugin that will create the JAR together with its dependency JARs into a single executable JAR file. Just add below plugin configuration in your pom.xml file.

<build>
   <pluginManagement>
      <plugins>
         <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
               <archive>
                  <manifest>
                     <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                     <mainClass>com.your.package.MainClass</mainClass>
                  </manifest>
               </archive>
               <descriptorRefs>
                  <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
               </descriptorRefs>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
               <execution>
                  <id>make-my-jar-with-dependencies</id>
                  <phase>package</phase>
                  <goals>
                     <goal>single</goal>
                  </goals>
               </execution>
            </executions>
         </plugin>
      </plugins>
   </pluginManagement>
</build>

After doing this don’t forget to run MAVEN tool with this command mvn clean compile assembly:single

http://jkoder.com/maven-creating-a-jar-together-with-its-dependency-jars-into-a-single-executable-jar-file/

score 5 · Answer 17 · answered Dec 28 '09 at 16:43

I won't answer directly the question as other have already done that before, but I really wonder if it's a good idea to embed all the dependencies in the project's jar itself.

I see the point (ease of deployment / usage) but it depends of the use case of your poject (and there may be alternatives (see below)).

If you use it fully standalone, why not.

But if you use your project in other contexts (like in a webapp, or dropped in a folder where other jars are sitting), you may have jar duplicates in your classpath (the ones in the folder, the one in the jars). Maybe not a bid deal but i usually avoid this.

A good alternative :

deploy your application as a .zip / .war : the archive contains your project's jar and all dependent jars ;
use a dynamic classloader mechanism (see Spring, or you can easily do this yourself) to have a single entry point of your project (a single class to start - see the Manifest mechanism on another answer), which will add (dynamically) to the current classpath all the other needed jars.

Like this, with in the end just a manifest and a "special dynamic classloader main", you can start your project with :

java -jar ProjectMainJar.jar com.stackoverflow.projectName.MainDynamicClassLoaderClass

score 5 · Answer 18 · edited Aug 15 '19 at 07:30

5

To create an executable JAR from command line itself just run the below command from the project path:

mvn assembly:assembly

edited Aug 15 '19 at 07:30

Ihor Patsian

1,258
2
15
23

answered Sep 14 '10 at 04:37

Mayank

51
1
1

5

I think you still need to do some stuff in the `pom.xml` otherwise you get `Error reading assemblies: No assembly descriptors found.`. That's what happens for me anyway. – Sridhar Sarnobat Sep 08 '17 at 18:59

score 3 · Answer 19 · edited Mar 15 '14 at 15:47

Something that have worked for me was:

  <plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
      <execution>
        <id>unpack-dependencies</id>
        <phase>prepare-package</phase>
        <goals>
          <goal>unpack-dependencies</goal>
        </goals>
        <configuration>
          <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes</outputDirectory>
        </configuration>
      </execution>

    </executions>
  </plugin>


  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
      <execution>
        <id>unpack-dependencies</id>
        <phase>package</phase>
      </execution>
    </executions>
    <configuration>
      <archive>
        <manifest>
          <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
          <classpathPrefix>lib/</classpathPrefix>
          <mainClass>SimpleKeyLogger</mainClass>
        </manifest>
      </archive>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>

I had extraordinary case because my dependency was system one:

<dependency>
  ..
  <scope>system</scope>
  <systemPath>${project.basedir}/lib/myjar.jar</systemPath>
</dependency>

I have changed the code provided by @user189057 with changes: 1) maven-dependency-plugin is executed in "prepare-package" phase 2) I am extracting unpacked classess directly to "target/classes"

EliuX · Answer 20 · 2015-09-30T17:22:48.763

This is the best way i found:

  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.4</version>
    <configuration>
      <archive>
        <manifest>
        <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
        <mainClass>com.myDomain.etc.MainClassName</mainClass>
        <classpathPrefix>dependency-jars/</classpathPrefix>
        </manifest>
      </archive>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.5.1</version>
    <executions>
      <execution>
        <id>copy-dependencies</id>
        <phase>package</phase>
        <goals>
            <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
        </goals>
        <configuration>
            <outputDirectory>
               ${project.build.directory}/dependency-jars/
            </outputDirectory>
        </configuration>
      </execution>
    </executions>
  </plugin>

With this configuration, all dependencies will be located in /dependency-jars. My application has no Main class, just context ones, but one of my dependencies do have a Main class (com.myDomain.etc.MainClassName) that starts the JMX server, and receives a start or a stop parameter. So with this i was able to start my application like this:

java -jar ./lib/TestApp-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar start

I wait it be useful for you all.

score 3 · Answer 21 · answered Feb 24 '16 at 18:12

I compared the tree plugins mentioned in this post. I generated 2 jars and a directory with all the jars. I compared the results and definitely the maven-shade-plugin is the best. My challenge was that I have multiple spring resources that needed to be merged, as well as jax-rs, and JDBC services. They were all merged properly by the shade plugin in comparison with the maven-assembly-plugin. In which case the spring will fail unless you copy them to your own resources folder and merge them manually one time. Both plugins output the correct dependency tree. I had multiple scopes like test,provide, compile, etc the test and provided were skipped by both plugins. They both produced the same manifest but I was able to consolidate licenses with the shade plugin using their transformer. With the maven-dependency-plugin of course you don't have those problems because the jars are not extracted. But like some other have pointed you need to carry one extra file(s) to work properly. Here is a snip of the pom.xml

            <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>copy-dependencies</id>
                    <phase>prepare-package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/lib</outputDirectory>
                        <includeScope>compile</includeScope>
                        <excludeTransitive>true</excludeTransitive>
                        <overWriteReleases>false</overWriteReleases>
                        <overWriteSnapshots>false</overWriteSnapshots>
                        <overWriteIfNewer>true</overWriteIfNewer>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.6</version>
            <configuration>
                <archive>
                    <manifest>
                        <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        <mainClass>com.rbccm.itf.cdd.poller.landingzone.LandingZonePoller</mainClass>
                    </manifest>
                </archive>
                <descriptorRefs>
                    <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                </descriptorRefs>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>make-my-jar-with-dependencies</id>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>single</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.4.3</version>
            <configuration>
                <shadedArtifactAttached>false</shadedArtifactAttached>
                <keepDependenciesWithProvidedScope>false</keepDependenciesWithProvidedScope>
                <transformers>
                    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                        <resource>META-INF/services/javax.ws.rs.ext.Providers</resource>
                    </transformer>
                    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                        <resource>META-INF/spring.factories</resource>
                    </transformer>
                    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                        <resource>META-INF/spring.handlers</resource>
                    </transformer>
                    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                        <resource>META-INF/spring.schemas</resource>
                    </transformer>
                    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.AppendingTransformer">
                        <resource>META-INF/spring.tooling</resource>
                    </transformer>
                    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ServicesResourceTransformer"/>
                    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer"/>
                    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ApacheLicenseResourceTransformer">
                    </transformer>
                </transformers>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>shade</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

score 2 · Answer 22 · answered Oct 10 '14 at 22:11

I tried the most up-voted answer here, and was able to get the jar runnable. But the program didn't run correctly. I do not know what the reason was. When I try to run from Eclipse, I get a different result but when I run the jar from command-line I get a different result (it crashes with a program-specific runtime error).

I had a similar requirement as the OP just that I had too many (Maven) dependencies for my project. Fortunately, the only solution that worked for me was that using Eclipse. Very simple and very straightforward. This is not a solution to the OP but is a solution for someone who has a similar requirement but with many Maven dependencies,

1) Just right-click on your project folder (in Eclipse) and select Export

2) Then select Java -> Runnable Jar

3) You will be asked to choose the location of the jar file

4) Finally, select the class that has the Main method that you want to run and choose Package dependencies with the Jar file and click Finish

score 2 · Answer 23 · answered Nov 25 '15 at 10:40

This could also be an option,You will be able to build your jar file

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <!-- Build an executable JAR -->
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.4</version>
            <configuration>
                <archive>
                    <manifest>
                        <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        <classpathPrefix>lib/</classpathPrefix>
                        <mainClass>WordListDriver</mainClass>
                    </manifest>
                </archive>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

score 2 · Answer 24 · edited Jun 18 '16 at 14:50

For anyone looking for options to exclude specific dependencies from the uber-jar, this is a solution that worked for me:

<project...>
<dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.spark</groupId>
            <artifactId>spark-core_2.11</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope> <=============
        </dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <descriptorRefs>
                        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                    </descriptorRefs>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <mainClass>...</mainClass>
                        </manifest>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>make-assembly</id>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>single</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

So it's not a configuration of the mvn-assembly-plugin but a property of the dependency.

score 2 · Answer 25 · answered Sep 29 '16 at 23:27

There are millions of answers already, I wanted to add you don't need <mainClass> if you don't need to add entryPoint to your application. For example APIs may not have necessarily have main method.

maven plugin config

  <build>
    <finalName>log-enrichment</finalName>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
        <configuration>
          <descriptorRefs>
            <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
          </descriptorRefs>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

build

mvn clean compile assembly:single

verify

ll target/
total 35100
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf     4096 Sep 29 16:25 ./
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf     4096 Sep 29 16:25 ../
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        0 Sep 29 16:08 archive-tmp/
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        0 Sep 29 16:25 classes/
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        0 Sep 29 16:25 generated-sources/
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        0 Sep 29 16:25 generated-test-sources/
-rwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf 35929841 Sep 29 16:10 log-enrichment-jar-with-dependencies.jar*
drwxrwx--- 1 root vboxsf        0 Sep 29 16:08 maven-status/

score 2 · Answer 26 · edited Nov 07 '18 at 07:17

Add to pom.xml:

  <dependency>
            <groupId>com.jolira</groupId>
            <artifactId>onejar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.4</version>
  </dependency>

and

<plugin>
       <groupId>com.jolira</groupId>
       <artifactId>onejar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
       <version>1.4.4</version>
       <executions>
              <execution>
                     <goals>
                         <goal>one-jar</goal>
                     </goals>
              </execution>
       </executions>
</plugin>

Thats it. Next mvn package will also create one fat jar additionally, including all dependency jars.

score 1 · Answer 27 · answered May 24 '13 at 19:42

The maven-assembly-plugin worked great for me. I spent hours with the maven-dependency-plugin and couldn't make it work. The main reason was that I had to define in the configuration section explicitly the artifact items which should be included as it is described in the documentation. There is an example there for the cases when you want to use it like: mvn dependency:copy, where there are not included any artifactItems but it doesn't work.

score 1 · Answer 28 · answered May 27 '15 at 15:21

This blog post shows another approach with combining the maven-jar and maven-assembly plugins. With the assembly configuration xml from the blog post it can also be controlled if dependencies will be expanded or just be collected in a folder and referenced by a classpath entry in the manifest:

The ideal solution is to include the jars in a lib folder and the manifest.mf file of the main jar include all the jars in classpath.

And exactly that one is described here: https://caffebig.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/executable-jar-file-with-dependent-jars-using-maven/

score 1 · Answer 29 · answered Jun 25 '20 at 12:33

I hope my experience can help somebody: I want to migrate my app Spring (using cas client) to Spring Boot (1.5 not 2.4 yet). I stucked with many problem like :

no main manifest attribute, in target/cas-client-web.jar

I want to make one unique jar with all dependencies. After some days in searching on the Internet. I can do my job with theses lines :

         <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <fork>true</fork>
                <mainClass>${start-class}</mainClass>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>repackage</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>single</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <archive>
                    <manifest>
                        <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        <mainClass>${start-class}</mainClass>
                    </manifest>
                </archive>
                <descriptorRefs>
                    <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                </descriptorRefs>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

with start-class is your main class

<properties>
    <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    <start-class>com.test.Application</start-class>
</properties>

And my Application is like :

package com.test;

import java.util.Arrays;

import com.test.TestProperties;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.EnableConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;


@SpringBootApplication
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@EnableConfigurationProperties({TestProperties.class})
public class Application {

public static void main(String[] args) {
    SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}

@Bean
public CommandLineRunner commandLineRunner(ApplicationContext ctx) {
    return args -> {

        System.out.println("Let's inspect the beans provided by Spring Boot:");

        String[] beanNames = ctx.getBeanDefinitionNames();
        Arrays.sort(beanNames);
        for (String beanName : beanNames) {
            System.out.println(beanName);
        }

    };
}

}

score 0 · Answer 30 · answered Feb 28 '19 at 21:47

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.4.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <!-- get all project dependencies -->
                <descriptorRefs>
                    <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                </descriptorRefs>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>make-assembly</id>
                    <!-- bind to the packaging phase -->
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>single</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

score -2 · Answer 31 · edited Feb 13 '16 at 09:12

Okay, so this is my solution. I know it's not using the pom.xml file. But I had the problem my programmme compiling and running on Netbeans but it failing when I tried Java -jar MyJarFile.jar. Now, I don't fully understand Maven and I think this why was having trouble getting Netbeans 8.0.2 to include my jar file in a library to put them into a jar file. I was thinking about how I used to use jar files with no Maven in Eclipse.

It's Maven that can compile all the dependanices and plugins. Not Netbeans. (If you can get Netbeans and be able to use java .jar to do this please tell me how (^.^)v )

[Solved - for Linux] by opening a terminal.

Then

cd /MyRootDirectoryForMyProject

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:compile

mvn install

This will create jar file in the target directory.

MyJarFile-1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar

Now

cd target

(You may need to run: chmod +x MyJarFile-1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar)

And finally

java -jar MyJarFile-1.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar

Please see

https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/LifecyclePhaseNotFoundException

I'll post this solution in on a couple of other pages with a similar problem. Hopefully I can save somebody from a week of frustration.

Try opening the Maven project you created with Netbeans. The basic rule of Netbeans is always create a Maven project and never a 'Java application' The add a maven-shade-plugin like one of the answers. Works like a charm. — rjdkolb, Nov 02 '15 at 10:45