Automatically Creating Manifest File with Eclipse for JAR Files

Question

How can I create a Manifest file for a group of JAR file I have already created.

I used Eclipse to create my JAR file.

Is there any better way o

Answer 1

Eclipse provides options to generate a manifest file for the Jar, save that generated manifest into the project, or use a specified file for the manifest.

I have Eclipse 3.4.2 and it's on the fourth screen in this process:

Right-click Project -> Export -> Java/JAR file, Next, JAR File Specification, Next, JAR Packaging Options, Next, JAR Manifest Specification.

The default is to just generate a default manifest for the JAR, and not to save the generated file back to the project, so if you open up your JAR file, it will have a manifest, but it will just have something like:

Manifest-Version: 1.0

in it.

If you want to change your existing JARs without re-building them, the easiest way is probably to just do as mad-j suggested and open them with a Zip tool and edit the existing /META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file and save it back into the JAR.