Make a JAR executable

Try with this simple class

import java.awt.*; import java.awt.event.*; public class MyClass { public static void main(String[] args) { Frame f = new Frame(); f.addWindowListener (new WindowAdapter() { public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) { System.exit(0); } } ); f.add(new Label("Hello world")); f.setSize(200,200); f.setVisible(true); } }

Then create this manifest file (manifest.mft) with any text editor.

Manifest-Version: 1.0 Main-Class: MyClass Classpath: .\MyJar.jar

Next, you include the manifest file in the JAR (MyJar.jar) with the MyClass class.

jar cvfm MyJar.jar manifest.mft *.class

Then you are able to start the MyClass.class by double-clicking on the MyJar.jar file (if the JRE is correctly installed) or by typing

java -jar MyJar.jar

If you need to pass parameters, use the -D switch before de -jar switch and use the getProperty() method to get the value.

On NT, you can also make JARs run from the command-line by setting the PATHEXT environment variable, for example

set PATHEXT=.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.JAR

Then if you have the jar file MyJar.jar accessible via the PATH environment variable, typing "MyJar" on the DOS command line will invoke "java -jar MyJar.jar" .

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