To create Executable jar

To create Executable jar files in java

I got 3 ways to  create executable jar files 

we can use

1. Eclipse
2. Ant script

3. Java command 

 

Eclipse method

I created the simple java hello world program to demonstrate this method.

package com.test.createjar;

public class Main {
   
    public static void main(String[] args){
        System.out.println("Hello World !");
    }

}

To right click the project name and goto Export -> export

1. We get export window

Then we will select Runnable jar file option. It will forward  to the Runnable jar file specification window

2. Runnable jar file specification window

* Here we select the launch configuration as method name and project name

* Destination path and jar file name

After clicks Finish button it created a executable jar file.

2.  Ant script

Through ant script also easily to create jar file 

To install ant in ubuntu 12.04 v

 sudo apt-get install ant1.6
 

In eclipse method in Runnable jar file specification window one option like save as a ant script we can choose that option here to create an ant script.

To specify ant file name in output path ex. build.xml

sample :-

After that ant script is generated automatically in output path.

To run ant script

 ant -f build.xml

  note : if you are using ant 1.7 version or above to run ant script like this ant -buildfile file.xml

sample:-

 

 After run this script java program converted as jar file in output file path.

 

Java command 

To create executable jar though command prompt

Step 1 : Need to create manifest file let say manifest.txt.

   manifest file contains project main class name

   Insert main class name in manifest file like this
   Main-Class: com.test.mainapp

Step 2 :  To create jar file
   Use this command
   You can issue following command to create a  Helloworld.jar.
   jar -cvfm Helloworld.jar manifest.txt com/test/*.class   

To run java jar file using command prompt

In command prompt type this command 

java -jar Executable.jar

Sample output: -