Running jar files on linux

[Robert Hill]

What is the secret to running an executable jar file on Linux by clicking on the file? I have java 1.5.x that came with the distro, but is from Sun, is there a missing file?

I can run it via command line.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Depends on the Linux desktop you're using. It's just a matter of adding a file association so that ${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java is used to launch jar files with the proper command-line arguments -- but the details of doing so are distro- and/or desktop- specific.

[Guy Allard]

Linux (and any Unix) does not have the concept of "file extension associations" in the way Windows does.

Suggest you write a shell script that executes the correct 'java -jar xxx' command, and click that.

Guy

[Arno Reper]

With Ubuntu...i double-click and it launch the jar...just like in MacOs or Window$
arno

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

 

Originally posted by Guy Allard:
Linux (and any Unix) does not have the concept of "file extension associations" in the way Windows does.

Ummmmm... Guy, wake up -- it's 2007!

All the popular Linux desktops (KDE, Gnome, etc) offer this feature, and have for some years now. Most distros include a large number of such associations out of the box, including clickable jar files.

[Tim Holloway]

<nitpick-mode>
Technically, he's right. Linux doesn't.
</nitpick-mode>

But then again, the desktop GUI shell (a/k/a the "desktop") is neither part of Linux, nor its most popular GUI add-on (X Windows). Gnome, KDE, sawfish, etc. are GUI layers independent of the OS or window managers.

But, as Ernest has pointed out, these days most of them do support some sort of mapping between desktop objects and applications.

[Stefan Wagner]

 

Originally posted by Tim Holloway:
<nitpick-mode>
Technically, he's right. Linux doesn't.
</nitpick-mode>

<nitpick-mode>
Technically, Windows can only execute .exe, .bat and .com -Files, and uses a similar technique, to associate Files to Programs.
</nitpick-mode>

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

 

Originally posted by Tim Holloway:
<nitpick-mode>
Technically, he's right. Linux doesn't.
</nitpick-mode>

Indeed; and to the same extent, it doesn't have the notion of "clicking on files!" To the extent that "clicking on files" has some reality, then file associations do, too

[Guy Allard]

Yes, but the notion of a file being executable is embedded in the OS.

And the various GUI implementations support that. Naturally.

The OS does not support file associations.