NoClassDefFoundError running a jar file from the command line

[M Burke]

Hi,
I made a jar file I want to execute on the command line. It has jar dependanies, so the other jars are packaged inside my main jar file in the \lib directory.

So I try to execute like this...>java -jar mainjar.jar
and I get a NoClassDefFoundError on all the depedancy jars.

I edit the manifest.mf to add the class path and executable main like this...
Manifest-Version: 1.0
Ant-Version: Apache Ant 1.7.1
Created-By: 10.0-b22 (Sun Microsystems Inc.)
Main-Class: com.GenerateReports.test.TestCharts
Class-Path: lib\Generate.properties lib\jar1.jar lib\jar2.jar lib\jar3.jar



What am I missing?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

You don't put the sub-jars inside the main jar; the class-path attribute refers to files outside of the main jar. The standard Java classloader does not have any idea how to load a jar inside a jar.

[M Burke]

Oh, I see. That is too bad, it would make deployment easier. Thanks for your help.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

M Burke wrote:Oh, I see. That is too bad, it would make deployment easier.

I agree, and I think many people do!

[Rob Spoor]

Maybe enough people will complain so Sun will rewrite the system class loader to handle JARs in JARs. Don't expect it though.