Create Executable Jar from IntelliJ Java Project

Summary

• Define Jar file Components
• Build Jar file
• Run command

Define Jar file Components

File | Project Structure...
Select Artifacts in left side under Project Settings

• Click "+"
• Select "jar"
• Choose "From modules with dependencies"
• Select the class with your executable main method.

Build Jar file

Build | Build Artifacts...

• Under "Build Artifact", choose the jar file that you defined earlier
• Under "Build", click "Build"

The jar file can be found in the /out/artifacts/_jar directory

Run command

If your project name is "ijtest" the command to execute your jar would look something like this:

$ java -jar /Users/lex/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/ijtest_jar/ijtest.jar

Notes

You can pass parameters, too.

$ java -jar /Users/lex/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/IJTest_jar/ij.jar --parm1=ONE --parm2=TWO

Troubleshooting

First, make sure you are running a recent version of InjelliJ.

I'm running InjelliJ Community Edition v14.0.2

Next, make sure the sdk you've configured in IntelliJ is consistent with the one you use on your console.

This is what happens when your IntelliJ JDK is version 1.7 but your java in your console is version 1.6...

~/dev/java $ java -jar /Users/lex/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/ijtest_jar/ijtest.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/company/Main : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:637)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:621)
 at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
 at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
 at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
 at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
 at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
 at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
 at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
 at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
~/dev/java $ java -version
java version "1.6.0_65"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_65-b14-466.1-11M4716)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.65-b04-466.1, mixed mode)
~/dev/java $ find /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home -name java
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/bin/java
~/dev/java $ /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/bin/java  -jar /Users/lex/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/ijtest_jar/ijtest.jar
~/dev/java $ /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/bin/java  -jar /Users/lex/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/ijtest_jar/ijtest.jar
hello, world!

Profit!

Here we run the jar, from the console, that I we just created using the steps outlined above...

~/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/ijtest_jar $ ls -lrt
total 24
-rw-r--r--  1 lex  staff   968 Jan  5 22:56 ijtest.jar
drwx------  4 lex  staff   136 Jan  5 22:57 ijtest
-rw-r--r--@ 1 lex  staff  6148 Jan  5 22:57 .DS_Store
~/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/ijtest_jar $ jar xf ./ijtest.jar
~/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/ijtest_jar $ ls -lrt
total 24
drwxr-xr-x  3 lex  staff   102 Jan  5 22:56 com
drwxr-xr-x  3 lex  staff   102 Jan  5 22:56 META-INF
-rw-r--r--  1 lex  staff   968 Jan  5 22:56 ijtest.jar
drwx------  4 lex  staff   136 Jan  5 22:57 ijtest
-rw-r--r--@ 1 lex  staff  6148 Jan  5 22:57 .DS_Store
~/dev/java/ijtest/out/artifacts/ijtest_jar $ find .
.
./.DS_Store
./com
./com/company
./com/company/Main.class
./ijtest
./ijtest/com
./ijtest/com/company
./ijtest/com/company/Main.class
./ijtest/META-INF
./ijtest/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
./ijtest.jar
./META-INF
./META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

Notice that all files exist in the jar file, including MANIFEST.MF.

References

http://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2010/08/quickly-create-jar-artifact/

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.