Maven: Packaging dependencies alongside project JAR?

I've like Maven to package a project with run-time dependencies.

This part is unclear (it's not exactly what you describe just after). My answer covers what you described.

I expect it to create a JAR file with the following manifest (...)

Configure the Maven Jar Plugin to do so (or more precisely, the Maven Archiver):

<project>
  ...
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
         <configuration>
           <archive>
             <manifest>
               <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
               <classpathPrefix>lib/</classpathPrefix>
               <mainClass>com.acme.MainClass</mainClass>
             </manifest>
           </archive>
         </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  ...
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>dependency1</groupId>
      <artifactId>dependency1</artifactId>
      <version>X.Y</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>dependency2</groupId>
      <artifactId>dependency2</artifactId>
      <version>W.Z</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
  ...
</project>

And this will produce a MANIFEST.MF with the following entries:

...
Main-Class: fully.qualified.MainClass
Class-Path: lib/dependency1-X.Y.jar lib/dependency2-W.Z.jar
...

and create the following directory structure (...)

This is doable using the Maven Dependency Plugin and the dependency:copy-dependencies goal. From the documentation:

  • dependency:copy-dependencies takes the list of project direct dependencies and optionally transitive dependencies and copies them to a specified location, stripping the version if desired. This goal can also be run from the command line.

You could bind it on the package phase:

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.1</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>copy-dependencies</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
              <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/lib</outputDirectory>
              <overWriteReleases>false</overWriteReleases>
              <overWriteSnapshots>false</overWriteSnapshots>
              <overWriteIfNewer>true</overWriteIfNewer>
            </configuration>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
</project>

Add the following plugins in pom.xml. Check the value at mainClass,classpathPrefix,addClasspath tags.

<plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.4</version>
        <configuration>
            <archive>
                <manifest>
                    <mainClass>org.apache.camel.spring.Main</mainClass>
                    <classpathPrefix>lib/</classpathPrefix>
                    <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                </manifest>
            </archive>
        </configuration>
    </plugin>
    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.4</version>
        <configuration>
            <descriptors>
                <descriptor>src/assembly/some-assembly.xml</descriptor>
            </descriptors>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
            <execution>
                <id>make-assembly</id>
                <phase>package</phase>
                <goals>
                    <goal>single</goal>
                </goals>
            </execution>
        </executions>
    </plugin>

Create some-assembly.xml under src/assembly as below.

<assembly
xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.0.xsd">
<id>distribution</id>
<formats>
    <format>zip</format>
</formats>
<includeBaseDirectory>true</includeBaseDirectory>
<fileSets>
    <fileSet>
        <directory>${project.build.directory}</directory>
        <outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
        <includes>
            <include>*.jar</include>
        </includes>
    </fileSet>
</fileSets>
<dependencySets>
    <dependencySet>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
        <outputDirectory>/lib</outputDirectory>
        <useProjectArtifact>false</useProjectArtifact>
        <unpack>false</unpack>
    </dependencySet>
</dependencySets>

Note that useProjectArtifact flag to false, unpack flag to false. If root folder inside zip file is not required,then one can make includeBaseDirectory to false.

This will create name-version-distribution.zip file. Inside zip file, there will be folder name-version. Inside this folder, your executable jar and lib folder containing all dependency jars will be present. Check manifest.MF file of executable jar. It contains both main class and classpath information.