Including dependencies in a jar with Maven

Question

Way to force maven to include all the dependencies in a single jar file?

we have a project the builds into a single jar file. we want the classes from dependencies to be copied into the jar as well.

Update: We know that we can't just include a jar file in a jar file. We are searching for a way to unpack the jars that are specified as dependencies and package the class files into my jar.

Answer 1

You can do this using the maven-assembly-plugin with the "jar-with-dependencies" descriptor. Here's the relevant chunk from one of our pom.xml's that does this:

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <!-- any other plugins -->
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>single</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
        <configuration>
          <descriptorRefs>
            <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
          </descriptorRefs>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

Comments

here what is "jar-with-dependencies" where do I mention it in pom.xml

---

Hii,

jar-with-dependencies means to put all the dependencies either A) inside the authors jar via repackaging, or B) make an executable jar that has the others in a classpath of MANIFEST.MF

You can ran into this with the alexa-skills-kit-sdk-for-java which worked well until the instructions to create the WAR barfed in Maven. In 'Developing Your First Skill' it says enter the line command 'mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-assembly-plugin:2.6:assembly -DdescriptorId=jar-with-dependencies package' which does not work.

 I put the above plug-in in the 'highest POM' (closest to the root file) and ran the line command 'mvn clean compile assembly:single' from that POM (directory) and it worked perfectly. 

For example: if your main class path is src/main/java/com/example/ui/Main.java, you must write like that to pom.xml: <mainClass>com.example.ui.Main</mainClass>.

Hope it helps!!
Thank you!!