What is the simplest way to package a Scala application for use on a desktop PC? I'm guessing that would be in the form of a jar file.
At the moment I'm using SBT to compile and run programs
I'd be interested in solutions for machines that have Scala installed (and the library in their classpath), as well as those that only have Java.
The simplest (and the most consistent) way to package a Scala application, is packaging into a JAR (like you do with normal Java applications). As long as JAR consists of standard compiled Java classes, you may run "Scala" JAR, even if you don't have Scala runtime at the box (all you need is a Java Runtime and scala-lang.jar on the classpath). You may specify the main class (gateway to functionalities of your application) in the manifast
Main-Class: mypackage.MyClass
so that you'll be able to call it only passing a JAR name to java.exe.
java -jar myjar.jar
You may specify the main class in SBT project definition.
http://www.scala-sbt.org/sbt-native-packager/index.html
The plugin allows you to package in a variety of formats(zip, tar, deb, dmg, msi, etc) and in different archtypes.
Related
I have a scala project built with dependancy on a locally built jar file (java code). Once I need to check in my scala code into a different environment for building and deployment, what's the best way to keep my jar file in the dependancy?
I know that if I use the sbt dependancy from online modules, I don't need to worry, it will download the version and build, but what if I want to use my own jar file for this purpose?
This is in OSX, and code will be checked into linux machines, I am using intellij and sbt to manage my scala project. I also used intellij to build my external java lib into jar file and added dependancy of this specific path.
I hope there should be some generic solution, but I am new in JAVA and SBT
I got it figured out. Add the jar files under the lib directory right under the project will solve the problem. SBT will pick it up automatically and you can certainly check in the jar files like source code.
So I'm relatively new to Java EE and I am having a tough time understanding when, where and why Java deployment files are packaged with their dependencies.
Say I build my project into myapp.jar, and it depends on fizz.jar, buzz.jar and JODA (joda-time-2.0.jar).
I've heard that the default classloader doesn't package jars inside of other jars, so I have to assume that if I called a jar task from Ant, then the default classloader would get invoked and myapp.jar would be created without those 3 dependencies in it.
Is this because the mentality is to deploy main-less jars in containers or other systems that will provide its requirements at runtime? If not, then how does myapp.jar ever run correctly?
What about executable jars? To met, these must be different than main-less jars, because they are meant to be standalone units, right? That means they would need all of their dependencies packaged with them, right?
Last but not least, what about jars that depend on jars that depend on jars...etc. (i.e., dependencygraphs that are huge)?
I guess all of these questions can be summed up as follows:
Is the idea behind a non-executable jar that it will be ran in such a way that it will know what classpath(s) to look on for its dependencies at runtime? (And thus doesn't need to be packaged with its dependencies)?
Is the idea behind an executable jar that it is a standalone unit and should be pacakged with its dependencies?
If my assertion to Question #1 above is correct, how does such classpath configuration take place? Are these settings that are stored inside the jar (such as in the manifest)? Else, how would a JRE know where to search for a particular jars dependencies at runtime?
Answers to these questions will actually clarify quite a lot of hangups I have with Java fundamentals, and so any input/help here will be appreciated enormously! Thanks
Jars do not know about other jars (unless assisted by some tools like Maven). The inter dependency of the jars is purely resolved by the Classloaders. I strongly recommend to have some idea about classloaders.
To address your questions,
Is the idea behind a non-executable jar that it will be ran in such a way that it will know what classpath(s) to look on for its dependencies at runtime? (And thus doesn't need to be packaged with its dependencies)?
NO. As mentioned, it's the classloader which looks the classpath and the jars mentioned therein. The jars do not have any information about other jars.
Is the idea behind an executable jar that it is a standalone unit and should be packaged with its dependencies?
NO. A classloader loads the standalone executable jars at the start of execution. If it needs other dependency jars it'll look into the classpath for those jars.
If my assertion to Question #1 above is correct, how does such classpath configuration take place? Are these settings that are stored inside the jar (such as in the manifest)? Else, how would a JRE know where to search for a particular jars dependencies at runtime?
For standalone jar (executable jar), the classloader looks for the classpath variable OR classpath passed while invoking the application.
For other type of application (WAR, EAR), There are predefined places/folders where the dependencies should be placed in order to get picked up. This is standardized by specs.
In a nutshell, it's the classloader which is pulling all the threads. There is standard places where it looks for all the dependent jars. This link nicely describes how the classloaders in standalone application and in a deployed (in some container) works.
JAR files are a way to package togher complex java application. Jar application are easy to move between diffrent machines and operating system.
I think the right way to use Jars is not tu put everything (every dependencies) into a single jar.
For example if your application uses a jar libryra (for example jdbc) to access a database you should not put the jdbc jar into your jar.
You had better to build a jar file with only your .class file.
Of course your code needs the jdbc jar to work properly. Here comes to explain how the virtual machine searches for extarnal classes:
-it first searches in the directories that contain the classes that come standard with J2SE (the path depends on your installation)
-it searches in the directories specified by the classpath (a classpath is either an environment variable or an option of the java command)
for example:
java -jar -c /your/path/ yourApp.jar
will run your application and will search th classes your application refers to in the directory /your/path/ so if you have external jars you can put them in that directory.
For detailed documentation: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/jar/index.html
Is it possible to run scala files with Java Virtual Machine? I am trying a lot but nothing works. Can someone give me some help with command line? Thanks a lot!
Well, it depends on whether you are generating a JAR or class files, etc, but it is pretty simple: you run it like any Java program, but including the Scala library as a dependency.
java -cp .:/path/to/scala-library.jar MyApp
Scala runs on the JVM. It does not have a separate virtual machine. But it does have its own libraries, so you will need to have Scala installed wherever you're running it.
If it's compiled you will have a .class file, so you just type in
scala -cp myClassPath myPackage.myFileName
as you would with Java. You don't need the -cp option if you've navigated to your classes folder.
It is possible to run Scala classes using the java command - you can probably Google how to do it, but you would need to sort out all the correct imports and there's no reason not to just use scala as above.
I'm trying to package a small application (still learning Scala!) in a "clean way". The goal is to have an executable JAR file. I've done the following:
packaged a JAR using sbt -> will work with
scala -cp myjarfile.jar MyClass
or
java -classpath path\to\scala-library.jar;myjarfile.jar MyClass
but won't work with
java -jar myjarfile.jar
because then scala/ScalaObject cannot be found. And no use adding a classpath on this last one, since the -jar option will ignore the -classpath option. Note that I have added the scala libs in my system CLASSPATH variable, but it seems to be ignored too when -jar is used.
added the scala library contents (by unzipping them first) to the jar created by sbt. This then works (the jar can be double-clicked and launched), but the manipulation is somewhat lengthy, and the resulting file is several megabytes big. Not ideal.
After hours of googling, I can see no way to create a small jar file that will launch when double-clicked and that doesn't involve a painful manipulation. What am I missing? I'm guessing there should be some way to define where the scala libraries are at system level. How do you deal with small applications that you want to be compiled and ready-to-run for efficiency?
Note that while I'm using sbt, I don't have a jar tool at hand (I'm relying on a JRE, not a JDK).
Thanks!
Pierric.
The following setup works for me:
have scala-library.jar in the same folder as the executable jar (and call java from there)
put this into your manifest:
Class-Path: scala-library.jar
Another option is to merge the contents of scala-library.jar into your application jar. The drawback is that this will increase its size. But you can use Proguard to strip unused classes from your final jar. I think there is an easy way of using sbt to package an executable jar using proguard.
Regarding the shrinking using Proguard, you can have a look at this page. It's about Android development; just ignore this part and have a look at the tables of the shrinking results. Some example applications shrink to less than 100kB.
Edit
Maybe you need to refine your question a bit. What are you trying to achieve? Do you want to install the program only on your system or do you want to distribute it?
If all you want is quickly launching a Java application without much impact of the JVM start-up time you can have a look at nailgun.
Just starting to learn scala.. I can't seem to figure out how to compile something into a standalone application. I think I almost have a working .jar file, but keep getting a Main-Class error even though it's in the manifest,
Scala programs require at a minimum the scala-library.jar file that accompanied the Scala Development Kit whose compiler you used to compile the sources. This is in addition to any 3rd-party Java (or Scala) libraries you might use. So from the perspective of building a stand-alone application (i.e., one that can be launched with a java -jar ... command) you must treat the scala-library.jar like a 3rd-party library.