This tutorial will show you how to use the maven-jar-plugin to create a manifest file, and package / add it into the final jar file. The manifest file is normally used to define following tasks :
- Define the entry point of the Application, make the Jar executable.
- Add project dependency classpath.
When you run the command mvn package to package project into a Jar, the following meta-inf/manifest.mf file will be generated and added into the final Jar file automatically.
Manifest-Version: 1.0
Built-By: ${user.name}
Build-Jdk: ${java.version}
Created-By: Apache Maven
Archiver-Version: Plexus Archiver
1. Make the Jar executable
Define maven-jar-plugin in pom.xml, and configure the manifest file via configuration tag.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<mainClass>com.mkyong.core.App</mainClass>
</manifest>
</archive>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Following manifest file will be generated. If you run this Jar, it will execute the com.mkyong.core.App.
anifest-Version: 1.0
Built-By: mkyong
Build-Jdk: 1.6.0_35
Created-By: Apache Maven
Main-Class: com.mkyong.core.App
Archiver-Version: Plexus Archiver
2. Add project dependency classpath.
Most Java projects need dependency, and it can define in manifest file easily. Normally, you will use maven-dependency-plugin to copy project dependencies to somewhere else.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
<mainClass>com.mkyong.core.App</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>
Following manifest file will be generated. The project dependencies will be copied to {project}/target/dependency-jars/.
manifest-Version: 1.0
Built-By: mkyong
Build-Jdk: 1.6.0_35
Class-Path: dependency-jars/log4j-1.2.17.jar
Created-By: Apache Maven
Main-Class: com.mkyong.core.App
Archiver-Version: Plexus Archiver
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I get a 404 when trying to download the source code
Thanks! You save my time!
Mr. Kim, thanks for sharing your site and this article. While there is a lot to learn yet about using Maven for our team, your page has become a favorite in our searches.
When building with Eclipse (STS 3.6.2.RELEASE / Luna 4.4.1) the eclipse Maven build puts no manifest (and no META-INF at all) into the jars that get published. I think the maven-jar-plugin is ignored. The manifest does get built when I run maven myself. Same issue with “Pivotal tc Server v3.0” and with Tomcat 7.
Thanks ! The only way I found to add jar dependency to a maven project.
how to create jsf + spring + hibernate integration project using maven 3.0.4 ?
http://www.mkyong.com/jsf2/jsf-2-0-spring-hibernate-integration-example/
Hello,
thanks for example.
I downloaded and run it.
But generated superman-1.0.jar doesn’t contain dependency jar (log4j-1.2.17.jar) file.
What’s worng?
The usage of “jar” and “dependency” plugins in the article only tells maven to generate a jar and copy the dependencies to another location, but it doesn’t specify how to find that location.
Different deployment environments might have different needs, but to get a simple version running you can package the dependencies with the jar.
Take a look at “maven-assembly-plugin”, using the “descriptorRefs” element with “jar-with-dependencies” .
Same query, how can In include depended jar in superman jar
Note that META-INF/ is upper-case, and only on case-challenged platforms such as Windows it is kind of correct to use meta-inf/ instead.