How do you create a standalone application with dependencies intact using Maven?

java, maven, maven-assembly-plugin, maven-jar-plugin

Solution

Try creating a custom assembly descriptor and add a dependencySet and make sure you specify, unpack as false.

Use this as assembly descriptor,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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>
    <dependencySets>
        <dependencySet>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
            <outputDirectory>lib</outputDirectory>
                        <useProjectArtifact>false</useProjectArtifact>
            <unpack>false</unpack>
        </dependencySet>
    </dependencySets>
</assembly>

Store this file to say src/main/assembly/assembly.xml and update your assembly plugin configuration in pom.xml like this.

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.2.1</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>assembly</id>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>attached</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                           <descriptor>${basedir}/src/main/assembly/assembly.xml</descriptor>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

Here is assembly descriptor reference if you need anything more

http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly.html

Problem

I have a desktop Java application built using Maven 2 (but I could upgrade to Maven 3 if that helps) with a number of open source dependencies. I'm now trying to package it up as a standalone to make it available to end users without them needing to install maven or anything else. I've successfully used maven-assembly-plugin to build a single jar containing all dependencies but this is not really what I want because when using LGPL libraries you are meant to redistribute the libraries you are using as separate jars. I want Maven to build a zip containing a jar with my code and a `MANIFEST.MF` that refers to the other jars I need together with the other jars. This seems like standard practice but I cannot see how to do it. Here's an extract from my pom ``` <build> <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId> <configuration> <encoding>UTF-8</encoding> <compilerVersion>1.6</compilerVersion> <source>1.6</source> <target>1.6</target> </configuration> </plugin> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId> <configuration> <argLine>-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8</argLine> </configuration> </plugin> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.4</version> <configuration> <archive> <manifest> <mainClass>com.company.widget.Main</mainClass> <packageName>com.company.widget</packageName> <addClasspath>true</addClasspath> </manifest> </archive> </configuration> </plugin> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.3</version> <configuration> <descriptorRefs> <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef> </descriptorRefs> <archive> <manifest> <mainClass>com.company.widget.Main</mainClass> <packageName>com.company.widget</packageName> <addClasspath>true</addClasspath> </manifest> </archive> </configuration> <executions> <execution> <id>make-assembly</id> <phase>package</phase> <goals> <goal>single</goal> </goals> </execution> </executions> </plugin> </plugins> </build> ``` EDIT:Taken on Kals idea created a file called descriptor.xml ``` <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <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> <dependencySets> <dependencySet> <scope>runtime</scope> <outputDirectory>lib</outputDirectory> <unpack>false</unpack> </dependencySet> </dependencySets> </assembly> ``` and pom contains: ``` <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.3</version> <configuration> <descriptors> <descriptor>assembly.xml</descriptor> </descriptors> <archive> <manifest> <mainClass>com.company.widget.cmdline.Main</mainClass> <packageName>com.company.widget</packageName> <addClasspath>true</addClasspath> </manifest> </archive> </configuration> <executions> <execution> <id>make-assembly</id> <phase>package</phase> <goals> <goal>single</goal> </goals> </execution> </executions> </plugin> ``` Now maintains the jar and puts them all in the lib folder, including my own code

Original source