How to convert Java program into jar?

Question

A little help from you all... I was trying to convert a simple java program into jar but nothing seems to have happened. I have 2 files: Tester.java , Tester.Class. Then I used this command line:

jar -cvf Tester.jar Tester.class

The .jar file was created but nothing seems to work. What did I miss?

Answer 1

To run the program in the jar file you created you would need to execute

java -cp Tester.jar your.package.Main

A more convenient way to execute the jar is to be able to do

java -jar Tester.jar

That, however, requires that you specify the main-class in a manifest file, that should be included in the jar-file:

• Put

  Manifest-Version: 1.2
  Main-Class: your.package.Main
  

  in manifest.txt

• And to create the jar:

  jar cvfm Tester.jar manifest.txt Tester.class