I have an application that i need to distribute as a jar but i have no idea how to create the jar archive as well as something called the manifest file. Basically i have only one class and the main is in that class itself. The path of the of the the file i want to archive is as follows:
C://wt//ter//Jhutto.class
and the path of my of my jar.exe is as follows:
C://java_1.4//bin//jar.exe
Could someone also explain(in detail if possible) to me or direct me to an informative website that explains what the manifest file is all about and also how to write a manifest file.
To create a JAR file having a manifest with the appropriate Main-Class header, you can use the Jar tool's m flag as described in the Modifying a Manifest section. You would first prepare a text file consisting of single line with the Main-Class header and value. For example, if your application was the single-class HelloWorld application, the entry point would of course be the HelloWorld class, and your text file would have this line:
Main-Class: HelloWorld
Assuming your text file was in a file called mainClass, you could merge it into a JAR file's manifest with a command such as this:
jar cmf mainClass app.jar HelloWorld.class
With your JAR file prepared in this way, you can run the HelloWorld application from the command line:
java -jar app.jar
I just created a file called "mainClass", and typed the above, voila!
