Creating runnable JAR with Gradle

Until now I created runnable JAR files via the Eclipse "Export..." functionallity but now I switched to IntelliJ IDEA and Gradle for build automation.

Some articles here suggest the "application" plugin, but this does not entirely lead to the result I expected (just a JAR, no start scripts or anything like this).

How can I achieve the same result Eclipse does with the "Export..." dialog?

An executable jar file is just a jar file containing a Main-Class entry in its manifest. So you just need to configure the jar task in order to add this entry in its manifest:

jar {
    manifest {
        attributes 'Main-Class': 'com.foo.bar.MainClass'
    }
}

You might also need to add classpath entries in the manifest, but that would be done the same way.

See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/jar/manifestindex.html

Both JB Nizet and Jorge_B's answers are correct.

In its simplest form, creating an executable JAR with Gradle is just a matter of adding the appropriate entries to the manifest. However, it's much more common to have dependencies that need to be included on the classpath, making this approach tricky in practice.

The application plugin provides an alternate approach; instead of creating an executable JAR, it provides:

• a run task to facilitate easily running the application directly from the build
• an installDist task that generates a directory structure including the built JAR, all of the JARs that it depends on, and a startup script that pulls it all together into a program you can run
• distZip and distTar tasks that create archives containing a complete application distribution (startup scripts and JARs)

A third approach is to create a so-called "fat JAR" which is an executable JAR that includes not only your component's code, but also all of its dependencies. There are a few different plugins that use this approach. I've included links to a few that I'm aware of; I'm sure there are more.

• shadow
• one-jar
• spring-boot
• capsule

As others have noted, in order for a jar file to be executable, the application's entry point must be set in the Main-Class attribute of the manifest file. If the dependency class files are not collocated, then they need to be set in the Class-Path entry of the manifest file.

I have tried all kinds of plugin combinations and what not for the simple task of creating an executable jar and somehow someway, include the dependencies. All plugins seem to be lacking one way or another, but finally I got it like I wanted. No mysterious scripts, not a million different mini files polluting the build directory, a pretty clean build script file, and above all: not a million foreign third party class files merged into my jar archive.

The following is a copy-paste from here for your convenience..

[How-to] create a distribution zip file with dependency jars in subdirectory /lib and add all dependencies to Class-Path entry in the manifest file:

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'java-library-distribution'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    compile 'org.apache.commons:commons-lang3:3.3.2'
}

// Task "distZip" added by plugin "java-library-distribution":
distZip.shouldRunAfter(build)

jar {
    // Keep jar clean:
    exclude 'META-INF/*.SF', 'META-INF/*.DSA', 'META-INF/*.RSA', 'META-INF/*.MF'

    manifest {
        attributes 'Main-Class': 'com.somepackage.MainClass',
                   'Class-Path': configurations.runtime.files.collect { "lib/$it.name" }.join(' ')
    }
    // How-to add class path:
    //     https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22659463/add-classpath-in-manifest-using-gradle
    //     https://gist.github.com/simon04/6865179
}

Hosted as a gist here.

The result can be found in build/distributions and the unzipped contents look like this:

lib/commons-lang3-3.3.2.jar
MyJarFile.jar

Contents of MyJarFile.jar#META-INF/MANIFEST.mf:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Main-Class: com.somepackage.MainClass
Class-Path: lib/commons-lang3-3.3.2.jar

Least effort solution for me was to make use of the gradle-shadow-plugin

Besides applying the plugin all that needs to be done is:

Configure the jar task to put your Main class into manifest

jar {
  manifest {
   attributes 'Main-Class': 'com.my.app.Main'
  }
}

Run the gradle task

./gradlew shadowJar

Take the app-version-all.jar from build/libs/

And finally execute it via:

java -jar app-version-all.jar

You can use the SpringBoot plugin:

plugins {
  id "org.springframework.boot" version "2.2.2.RELEASE"
}

Create the jar

gradle assemble

And then run it

java -jar build/libs/*.jar

Note: your project does NOT need to be a SpringBoot project to use this plugin.