Building a fat jar using maven

I have a code base which I want to distribute as jar. It also have dependency on external jars, which I want to bundle in the final jar.

I heard that this can be done using maven-assembly-plug-in, but I don't understand how. Could someone point me to some examples.

Right now, I'm using fat jar to bundle the final jar. I want to achieve the same thing using maven.

Note: If you are a spring-boot application, read the end of answer

Add following plugin to your pom.xml The latest version can be found at

...
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>CHOOSE LATEST VERSION HERE</version>
            <configuration>
                <descriptorRefs>
                    <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                </descriptorRefs>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>assemble-all</id>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>single</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>
...

After configuring this plug-in, running mvn package will produce two jars: one containing just the project classes, and a second fat jar with all dependencies with the suffix "-jar-with-dependencies".

if you want correct classpath setup at runtime then also add following plugin

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <archive>
            <manifest>
                <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
            </manifest>
        </archive>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

---

For spring boot application use just following plugin (choose appropriate version of it)

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <fork>true</fork>
        <mainClass>${start-class}</mainClass>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <goals>
                <goal>repackage</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

You can use the maven-shade-plugin.

After configuring the shade plugin in your build the command mvn package will create one single jar with all dependencies merged into it.

Maybe you want maven-shade-plugin, bundle dependencies, minimize unused code and hide external dependencies to avoid conflicts.

<build>
	<plugins>
		<plugin>
			<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
			<artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
			<version>3.1.1</version>
			<executions>
				<execution>
					<phase>package</phase>
					<goals>
						<goal>shade</goal>
					</goals>
					<configuration>
						<minimizeJar>true</minimizeJar>
						<createDependencyReducedPom>true</createDependencyReducedPom>
						<dependencyReducedPomLocation>
							${java.io.tmpdir}/dependency-reduced-pom.xml
						</dependencyReducedPomLocation>
						<relocations>
							<relocation>
								<pattern>com.acme.coyote</pattern>
								<shadedPattern>hidden.coyote</shadedPattern>
							</relocation>
						</relocations>
					</configuration>
				</execution>
			</executions>
		</plugin>
	</plugins>
</build>

References:

• http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-shade-plugin/plugin-info.html
• http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-shade-plugin/shade-mojo.html

actually, adding the

<archive>
   <manifest>
    <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
    <packageName>com.some.pkg</packageName>						
    <mainClass>com.MainClass</mainClass>
  </manifest>
</archive>

declaration to maven-jar-plugin does not add the main class entry to the manifest file for me. I had to add it to the maven-assembly-plugin in order to get that in the manifest

You can use the onejar-maven-plugin for packaging. Basically, it assembles your project and its dependencies in as one jar, including not just your project jar file, but also all external dependencies as a "jar of jars", e.g.

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>com.jolira</groupId>
            <artifactId>onejar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.4.4</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>one-jar</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

Note 1: Configuration options is available at the project home page.

Note 2: For one reason or the other, the onejar-maven-plugin project is not published at Maven Central. However jolira.com tracks the original project and publishes it to with the groupId com.jolira.

An alternative is to use the maven shade plugin to build an uber-jar.

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
    <version> Your Version Here </version>
    <configuration>
            <!-- put your configurations here -->
    </configuration>
    <executions>
            <execution>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                            <goal>shade</goal>
                    </goals>
            </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>