Java Tip 127: See JAR run

You can easily package an application’s entire set of classes and resources into a Java Archive (JAR). In fact, that is one goal of having jar files. Another is to let users easily execute the application stored in the archive. Why then are jar files second-class citizens in the Java universe—functioning only as archives—when they can be first class, right alongside native executables?

To execute a jar file, you can use the

java

command’s

-jar

option. For example, say you have a runnable jar file called

myjar.jar

. Because the file is runnable, you can execute it like this:

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