Java Eclipse: Difference between exporting as a JAR and exporting as a Runnable JAR

Question

What is the difference in eclipse between exporting as a JAR file and exporting as a Runnable JAR file? Aren\'t they both runnable? What are the pros/cons of each?

Answer 1

In my case, I used to export as a jar when I had all main class and all the libraries path directory specified in the manifest.mf . If many applications are using same library it is unnecessary to export shared library for each jar. It makes running jar faster. But, many times due to configuration issue in different server class-path cannot access library and in that case it makes sense to export the runnable jar that makes file slow to execute and large.