How to create the fat jar with gradle kotlin script

Question

As titled, I'd like to know how to modify the gradle.build.kts in order to have a task to create a unique jar with all the dependencies (kotlin lib included) inside.

I found this sample in Groovy:

//create a single Jar with all dependencies
task fatJar(type: Jar) {
    manifest {
        attributes 'Implementation-Title': 'Gradle Jar File Example',
            'Implementation-Version': version,
            'Main-Class': 'com.mkyong.DateUtils'
    }
    baseName = project.name + '-all'
    from { configurations.compile.collect { it.isDirectory() ? it : zipTree(it) } }
    with jar
}

But I have no idea how I could write that in kotlin, other than:

task("fatJar") {

}

Answer 1

Here is a version that does not use a plugin, more like the Groovy version.

import org.gradle.jvm.tasks.Jar

val fatJar = task("fatJar", type = Jar::class) {
    baseName = "${project.name}-fat"
    manifest {
        attributes["Implementation-Title"] = "Gradle Jar File Example"
        attributes["Implementation-Version"] = version
        attributes["Main-Class"] = "com.mkyong.DateUtils"
    }
    from(configurations.runtime.map({ if (it.isDirectory) it else zipTree(it) }))
    with(tasks["jar"] as CopySpec)
}

tasks {
    "build" {
        dependsOn(fatJar)
    }
}

Also explained here

---

Some commenters pointed out that this does not work anymore with newer Gradle versions. Update tested with Gradle 5.4.1:

import org.gradle.jvm.tasks.Jar

val fatJar = task("fatJar", type = Jar::class) {
    baseName = "${project.name}-fat"
    manifest {
        attributes["Implementation-Title"] = "Gradle Jar File Example"
        attributes["Implementation-Version"] = version
        attributes["Main-Class"] = "com.mkyong.DateUtils"
    }
    from(configurations.runtimeClasspath.get().map({ if (it.isDirectory) it else zipTree(it) }))
    with(tasks.jar.get() as CopySpec)
}

tasks {
    "build" {
        dependsOn(fatJar)
    }
}

Note the difference in configurations.runtimeClasspath.get() and with(tasks.jar.get() as CopySpec).

Answer 2

Here are 4 ways to do this. Note that the first 3 methods modify the existing Jar task of Gradle.

Method 1: Placing library files beside the result JAR

This method does not need application or any other plugins.

tasks.jar {
    manifest.attributes["Main-Class"] = "com.example.MyMainClass"
    manifest.attributes["Class-Path"] = configurations
        .runtimeClasspath
        .get()
        .joinToString(separator = " ") { file ->
            "libs/${file.name}"
        }
}

Note that Java requires us to use relative URLs for the Class-Path attribute. So, we cannot use the absolute path of Gradle dependencies (which is also prone to being changed and not available on other systems). If you want to use absolute paths, maybe this workaround will work.

Create the JAR with the following command:

./gradlew jar

The result JAR will be created in build/libs/ directory by default.

After creating your JAR, copy your library JARs in libs/ sub-directory of where you put your result JAR. Make sure your library JAR files do not contain space in their file name (their file name should match the one specified by ${file.name} variable above in the task).

Method 2: Embedding the libraries in the result JAR file (fat or uber JAR)

This method too does not need any Gradle plugin.

tasks.jar {
    manifest.attributes["Main-Class"] = "com.example.MyMainClass"
    val dependencies = configurations
        .runtimeClasspath
        .get()
        .map(::zipTree) // OR .map { zipTree(it) }
    from(dependencies)
    duplicatesStrategy = DuplicatesStrategy.EXCLUDE
}

Creating the JAR is exactly the same as the previous method.

Method 3: Using the Shadow plugin (to create a fat or uber JAR)

plugins {
    id("com.github.johnrengelman.shadow") version "6.0.0"
}
// Shadow task depends on Jar task, so these configs are reflected for Shadow as well
tasks.jar {
    manifest.attributes["Main-Class"] = "org.example.MainKt"
}

Create the JAR with this command:

./gradlew shadowJar

See Shadow documentations for more information about configuring the plugin.

Method 4: Creating a new task (instead of modifying the Jar task)

tasks.create("MyFatJar", Jar::class) {
    group = "my tasks" // OR, for example, "build"
    description = "Creates a self-contained fat JAR of the application that can be run."
    manifest.attributes["Main-Class"] = "com.example.MyMainClass"
    duplicatesStrategy = DuplicatesStrategy.EXCLUDE
    val dependencies = configurations
        .runtimeClasspath
        .get()
        .map(::zipTree)
    from(dependencies)
    with(tasks.jar.get())
}

Running the created JAR

java -jar my-artifact.jar

The above solutions were tested with:

• Java 17
• Gradle 7.1 (which uses Kotlin 1.4.31 for .kts build scripts)

See the official Gradle documentation for creating uber (fat) JARs.
For more information about manifests, see Oracle Java Documentation: Working with Manifest files.
For difference between tasks.create() and tasks.register() see this post.

Note that your resource files will be included in the JAR file automatically (assuming they were placed in /src/main/resources/ directory or any custom directory set as resources root in the build file). To access a resource file in your application, use this code (note the / at the start of names):

• Kotlin

  val vegetables = MyClass::class.java.getResource("/vegetables.txt").readText()
  // Alternative ways:
  // val vegetables = object{}.javaClass.getResource("/vegetables.txt").readText()
  // val vegetables = MyClass::class.java.getResourceAsStream("/vegetables.txt").reader().readText()
  // val vegetables = object{}.javaClass.getResourceAsStream("/vegetables.txt").reader().readText()
  

• Java

  var stream = MyClass.class.getResource("/vegetables.txt").openStream();
  // OR var stream = MyClass.class.getResourceAsStream("/vegetables.txt");
  
  var reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stream));
  var vegetables = reader.lines().collect(Collectors.joining("\n"));
  

Answer 3

Here is how to do it as of Gradle 6.5.1, Kotlin/Kotlin-Multiplatform 1.3.72, utilizing a build.gradle.kts file and without using an extra plugin which does seem unnecessary and problematic with multiplatform;

Note: in reality, few plugins work well with the multiplatform plugin from what I can tell, which is why I suspect its design philosophy is so verbose itself. It's actually fairly elegant IMHO, but not flexible or documented enough so it takes a ton of trial and error to setup even WITHOUT additional plugins.

Hope this helps others.

kotlin {
    jvm {
        compilations {
            val main = getByName("main")
            tasks {
                register<Jar>("fatJar") {
                    group = "application"
                    manifest {
                        attributes["Implementation-Title"] = "Gradle Jar File Example"
                        attributes["Implementation-Version"] = archiveVersion
                        attributes["Main-Class"] = "[[mainClassPath]]"
                    }
                    archiveBaseName.set("${project.name}-fat")
                    from(main.output.classesDirs, main.compileDependencyFiles)
                    with(jar.get() as CopySpec)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}