Execute jar file with multiple classpath libraries from command prompt

Question

I have a Maven project which generates a jar file and copies all dependencies to target lib folder   I want to execute this project on client s machine  windows    So  I copied myproject jar to C  xyz folder and all dependencies to C  xyz lib folder   How do I execute this project from client s command prompt  I tried to use java -cp lib   jar -jar myproject jar from C  xyz folder but it throws following error   Exception in thread  main  java lang NoClassDefFoundError  lib commons-codec-1 3 jar Caused by  java lang ClassNotFoundException  lib commons-codec-1 3 jar     at java net URLClassLoader 1 run Unknown Source      at java security AccessController doPrivileged Native Method      at java net URLClassLoader findClass Unknown Source      at java lang ClassLoader loadClass Unknown Source      at sun misc Launcher AppClassLoader loadClass Unknown Source      at java lang ClassLoader loadClass Unknown Source  Could not find the main class  lib commons-codec-1 3 jar   Program will exit    I think if I specify all dependencies in classpath  like java -cp lib dep1 jar dep2 jar   it will get rid of the problem but I don t want to do this as I have 40 libraries already and it might grow in future releases   Is there a better way to do this

User · Accepted Answer

Let maven generate a batch file to start your application  This is the simplest way to this   You can use the appassembler-maven-plugin for such purposes

User · Answer

You can use maven-assembly-plugin  Here is the example from the official site  https   maven apache org plugins maven-assembly-plugin usage html       lt plugin gt           lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt maven-assembly-plugin lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt 2 5 1 lt  version gt           lt configuration gt               lt descriptorRefs gt                   lt descriptorRef gt jar-with-dependencies lt  descriptorRef gt               lt  descriptorRefs gt               lt archive gt                   lt manifest gt                       lt mainClass gt your main class lt  mainClass gt                   lt  manifest gt               lt  archive gt           lt  configuration gt           lt executions gt               lt execution gt                   lt id gt make-assembly lt  id gt   lt  -- this is used for inheritance merges -- gt                   lt phase gt package lt  phase gt   lt  -- bind to the packaging phase -- gt                   lt goals gt                       lt goal gt single lt  goal gt                   lt  goals gt               lt  execution gt           lt  executions gt       lt  plugin gt

User · Answer

There are several options   The easiest is likely the exec plugin   You can also generate a jar containing all the dependencies using the assembly plugin   Lastly  you can generate a file with the classpath in it using the dependency classpath goal

User · Answer

Regardless of the OS the below command should work   java -cp  MyJar jar lib    com mainClass   Always use quotes and please take attention that lib   jar will not work

User · Answer

I was running into the same issue but was able to package all dependencies into my jar file using the Maven Shade Plugin

User · Answer

This will not work java -cp lib   jar -jar myproject jar  You have to put it jar by jar   So in case of commons-codec-1 3 jar   java -cp lib commons-codec-1 3 jar lib next jar jar and so on   The other solution might be putting all your jars to ext directory of your JRE  This is ok if you are using a standalone JRE  If you are using the same JRE for running more than one application I do not recommend doing it

User · Answer

You cannot use both -jar and -cp on the command line - see the java documentation that says that if you use -jar      the JAR file is the source of all user classes  and other user class path settings are ignored    You could do something like this   java -cp lib   jar   myproject MainClass  Notice the    in the -cp argument  to work around a Java command-line bug  Also  please note that this is the Windows version of the command  The path separator on Unix is

User · Answer

Using java 1 7  on UNIX -   java -cp myjar jar lib     mypackage MyClass   On Windows you need to use     instead of     -   java -cp myjar jar lib     mypackage MyClass

User · Answer

a possible solution could be  create a batch file  there do a loop on lib directory for all files inside it and set each file unside lib on classpath  then after that run the jar  source for loop in batch file for info on loops

[java] Execute jar file with multiple classpath libraries from command prompt

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