Java: how to import a jar file from command line

Question

You could run it without the -jar command line argument if you happen to know the name of the main class you wish to run:

java -classpath .;myjar.jar;lib/referenced-class.jar my.package.MainClass

If perchance you are using linux, you should use ":" instead of ";" in the classpath.

If you're running a jar file with java -jar, the -classpath argument is ignored. You need to set the classpath in the manifest file of your jar, like so:

Class-Path: jar1-name jar2-name directory-name/jar3-name

See the Java tutorials: Adding Classes to the JAR File's Classpath.

Edit: I see you already tried setting the class path in the manifest, but are you sure you used the correct syntax? If you skip the ':' after "Class-Path" like you showed, it would not work.

try

java -cp "your_jar.jar:lib/referenced_jar.jar" com.your.main.Main

If you are on windows, you should use ; instead of :

you can try to export as "Runnable jar" in eclipse. I have also problems, when i export as "jar", but i have never problems when i export as "Runnable jar".