Does Maven package dependencies by default?

Question

I have a Maven project with certain set of dependencies. One of the dependencies is:

<dependency>
    <groupId>net.java.dev.jna</groupId>
    <artifactId>jna</artifactId>
    <version>4.5.0</version>
</dependency>

As long as I work in Eclipse, all is good. But when I package and try to use the resulting jar file(from command line if that matters), I get this error message:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/sun/jna/NativeLibrary

while this class is definitely accessible in IDE.

My guess is that Maven is not packaging project's dependencies by default but in that case why don't I get more error messages complaining about more classes that were not found?

is it a jar project or war project? – sidgate Nov 10 '17 at 03:41 — sidgate, Nov 10 '17 at 03:41
@sidgate Hi, the packaging is set to `jar` – Eugene S Nov 10 '17 at 03:42 — Eugene S, Nov 10 '17 at 03:42

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 10 '17 at 03:50

1

Maven will only create a jar for your project/component. This does not include the external jars (dependencies). If you want/need to include the contents of the dependencies in your jar, you should create a fat jar or uber jar. For an uber jar, you may use shade plugin.

answered Nov 10 '17 at 03:50

Luiggi Mendoza

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Thank you for your answer. That was my guess to but how do I explain the fact it doesn't complain about few dozens other dependencies that this project has? – Eugene S Nov 10 '17 at 03:53
1

Maybe because they are not loaded yet by the ClassLoader. – Luiggi Mendoza Nov 10 '17 at 03:53
or those are already present in your classpath – sidgate Nov 10 '17 at 03:55

Does Maven package dependencies by default?

1 Answers1