How To: Eclipse Maven install build jar with dependencies

Question

I am using Eclipse Maven (m2e) inside Eclipse and I am running my project like this:

My pom.xml looks like this:

Answer 1

There are a couple of ways of doing this.

1) If you want an uber-jar (repacked with all dependencies), look into using and configuring the maven-shade-plugin:

  
    
      
        org.apache.maven.plugins
        maven-shade-plugin
        1.6
        
          
            package
            
              shade
            
            
              
                
                  com.group.id.Launcher1
                
              
            
          
        
      
    
  

This will unpack all dependencies and merge them into one JAR file.

2) If you want to deliver a bundle (zip, tar.gz, etc) with the unpacked JAR files in the bundle (perhaps under lib/) then you need to look into the maven-assembly-plugin:

  
    
      
        org.apache.maven.plugins
        maven-assembly-plugin
        2.3
        
          
            create-distro
            package
            
              single
            
            
              
                src/main/assembly/dist.xml
              
            
          
        
      
    
  

Note that this requires an assembly descriptor src/main/assembly/dist.xml and example looks like this:

  distribution
  
    zip
  

  
    
      false
      false
      false
      runtime
      0755
      0755
      bin

      
        com.group.id:project-launch1
        com.group.id:project-launch2
      

    
    
      false
      true
      false
      runtime
      0644
      0755
      lib

      
        com.group.id:project-lib1
        com.group.id:project-lib2
        com.group.id:project-lib3
        com.group.id:project-lib4
      

    
  

And since you are now assembling dependencies, you have better define the dependency in the pom.xml, like so:

  
    
      com.group.id
      project-launch1
      0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
      jar
    
    
      com.group.id
      project-launch2
      0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
      jar
    
    
      com.group.id
      project-lib1
      0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
      jar
    
    ... and so on ...
  

3) If you are delivering a bundle with an executable JAR file launcher, you will likely need to add a maven-jar-plugin configuration in addition to the maven-assembly-plugin:

  
    
      com.group.id
      project-lib1
      0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
      jar
    
    
      com.group.id
      project-lib2
      0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
      jar
    
    
      com.group.id
      project-lib3
      0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
      jar
    
    ... and so on ...
  

  
    
      
        maven-jar-plugin
        
          
            false
            true
            
              com.group.id.Launcher1
              true
              ../lib/
            
          
        
      
    
  

Note that the "addClasspath" directive adds the project dependencies to the class path. This is needed for JAR launchers, as they explicitly ignore all CLASSPATH environmental variables.