Problem with the use of external library from a jar archive

[Clivant Yeo]

Hi all,

I had created a class which uses the functionality of an external library (a jar file). I had set the CLASSPATH variable to denotes the path to the external library and all went well when I complied and run the class. The problem arises when I jarred the class into a jar archive; a java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError denoting that the external library cannot be found. Appreciate any help given.

Regards,
Clivant

[Ben Souther]

You need to list jars explicitly in your classpath.
IOW, you can't just point the the directory they're in.

Example
export CLASSPATH=/home/me/java:/home/me/java/lib/myJar.jar

Or in Windows:

set CLASSPATH=C:\me;C:\me\lib\myJar.jar

[Clivant Yeo]

Hi Ben,

I did list the jar archive explicitly, that's why the class can run smoothly before it is being jarred up. The problem occurs when I jarred it up and tries to execute it from the new jar file.

[Ben Souther]

I'm not sure what you mean.
Are you nesting the jarfiles?

[Clivant Yeo]

I am not nesting Jar files. I had a class (Engine) importing a package from a external library (another jar file). I had set the CLASSPATH correspondingly, and my class can run smoothly. After I jarred up my Engine class in a jar file, I cannot run the jar file smoothly; a java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError is thrown, indicating that the package that I imported does not exist.

[Ben Souther]

Are you sure that the class not found wasn't your own?
Did you add your jar file to the classpath?
Also, check the structure of your jar file with:
jar -tf yourjarfile.jar
to make sure you didn't nest your package structure too deeply.

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

How are you running your jar? Using java -jar myJar.jar?
Is your jar in the same directory with the imported jar?

[Clivant Yeo]

Are you sure that the class not found wasn't your own?
Did you add your jar file to the classpath?
Also, check the structure of your jar file with:
jar -tf yourjarfile.jar
to make sure you didn't nest your package structure too deeply.

Yeah the class not found is not my own. I added my jar file too, but it just won't work. And the structure of my jar file is correct.

[Clivant Yeo]

How are you running your jar? Using java -jar myJar.jar?
Is your jar in the same directory with the imported jar?

I am running my jar file as java -jar myJar.jar in order to see the output. Be it the jar files are in the same directory or not, the same error is thrown.