Too long line in manifest file while trying to create jar

Question

I am getting a too long line error while trying to build a jar. the long line in the manifest file is the Class-Path line as the application uses a lot of third-party libraries. needless to say, I am using Windows :-( and Eclipse Java 1.6

I tried Class-Path: lib or Class-Path: lib/ but they did not work.

Answer 1

The classpath is too long due to the number of jar files in it. «No line may be longer than 72 bytes (not characters), in its UTF8-encoded form.» [from docs: java 5, java 8; «Line length» section].

use as the following way to resolve the problem:

(1) use separate lines, to avoid too long a line for java package name lists

(2) type a preceding space before each folloing lines, for example:

Class-Path:
 ...jar
 ...jar
 ...jar

Answer 2

The single character didn't work for me (Java 8, IntelliJ). I used two characters at the start and no characters at the end of the line (wasn't apparent from the above example) and two new lines at the end, e.g.

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Main-Class: com.mypackage.MyApp
Implementation-Version: 2.0.0
Class-Path:  newLibs/asjava.zip
  newLibs/activation.jar
  newLibs/axis-ant.jar
  newLibs/axis.jar
  newLibs/bcel-5.1.jar
  newLibs/commons-discovery-0.2.jar
  newLibs/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-api-jdo-4.2.0-release.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-api-jpa-4.1.4.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-cache-4.0.4.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-core-4.1.5.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-geospatial-4.1.0-release.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-guava-4.1.3.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-java8-4.2.0-release.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-jdo-query-4.2.0-release.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-jodatime-4.1.1.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-jpa-query-4.0.4.jar
  newLibs/datanucleus-rdbms-4.1.6.jar
  newLibs/dom4j-1.6.1.jar
  newLibs/ehcache-1.1.jar
  newLibs/ehcache-core-2.2.0.jar
  newLibs/geronimo-jta_1.1_spec-1.1.jar
  newLibs/guava-15.0.jar
  newLibs/h2-1.3.168.jar
  newLibs/ibmjsse.jar
  newLibs/javax.jdo-3.2.0-m3.jar
  newLibs/javax.persistence-2.1.1.jar
  newLibs/jaxrpc.jar
  newLibs/jdo-api-3.1-rc1.jar
  newLibs/jdom.jar
  newLibs/joda-time-1.6.jar
  newLibs/jtds-1.2.jar
  newLibs/log4j-1.2.14.jar
  newLibs/mail.jar
  newLibs/saaj.jar
  newLibs/servlet-api.jar
  newLibs/wsdl4j-1.5.1.jar
  newLibs/xercesImpl.jar
  newLibs/xml-apis.jar

I also avoided placing multiple jars on one line as that didn't appear to work (even with lines less than 72 bytes).

What led me to arrive at this solution was (1) I kept getting various class not found exceptions, of course and (2) When I examined the generated manifest file in the jar file, the spacing between the jars was missing - I assume that it was silently failing because there was no reported error apart from the class not found exceptions. My working, generated manifest file looks like this:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Implementation-Version: 2.0.0
Class-Path:  newLibs/asjava.zip newLibs/activation.jar newLibs/axis-an
 t.jar newLibs/axis.jar newLibs/bcel-5.1.jar newLibs/commons-discovery
 -0.2.jar newLibs/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar newLibs/datanucleus-api-jd
 o-4.2.0-release.jar newLibs/datanucleus-api-jpa-4.1.4.jar newLibs/dat
 anucleus-cache-4.0.4.jar newLibs/datanucleus-core-4.1.5.jar newLibs/d
 atanucleus-geospatial-4.1.0-release.jar newLibs/datanucleus-guava-4.1
 .3.jar newLibs/datanucleus-java8-4.2.0-release.jar newLibs/datanucleu
 s-jdo-query-4.2.0-release.jar newLibs/datanucleus-jodatime-4.1.1.jar 
 newLibs/datanucleus-jpa-query-4.0.4.jar newLibs/datanucleus-rdbms-4.1
 .6.jar newLibs/dom4j-1.6.1.jar newLibs/ehcache-1.1.jar newLibs/ehcach
 e-core-2.2.0.jar newLibs/geronimo-jta_1.1_spec-1.1.jar newLibs/guava-
 15.0.jar newLibs/h2-1.3.168.jar newLibs/ibmjsse.jar newLibs/javax.jdo
 -3.2.0-m3.jar newLibs/javax.persistence-2.1.1.jar newLibs/jaxrpc.jar 
 newLibs/jdo-api-3.1-rc1.jar newLibs/jdom.jar newLibs/joda-time-1.6.ja
 r newLibs/jtds-1.2.jar newLibs/junit-3.8.1.jar newLibs/log4j-1.2.14.j
 ar newLibs/mail.jar newLibs/saaj.jar newLibs/servlet-api.jar newLibs/
 wsdl4j-1.5.1.jar newLibs/xercesImpl.jar newLibs/xml-apis.jar
Main-Class: com.mypackage.MyApp