executable-java-container

Native executable container for java applications. Allows you to run your java code as a service or a console program in windows, linux, mac, etc.

Disclaimer

This project is a mavenized bundle of a simple configuration of the great and powerful Tanuki's wrapper (community edition).
For commercial/professional license or advanced configurations options check the documentation at Tanuki's site.

Introduction

One of the problems I face with Java applications is the inability to run them as native applications. While the Java VM does a great job at abstracting the execution model, in order to run your apps as services, or simple console commands you need to fill the gap between the VM executable and the platform details.

That's where Tanuki's wrapper comes in and works as a JVM wrapper that can be executed as a native application with your code. It still needs the JVM to run, but it abstracts you from the details of finding, executing, or restarting the VM.

This project builds on top of tanuki's wrapper to simplify its configuration and convert it to maven, so you can use it as a dependency to build your own portable application that can be executed in windows, linux, mac, etc without any extra code.

Usage

There are two options to use this project: as an app container (similar to tomcat without the web part), or as a maven dependency that wraps your code into an executable package.

Standalone container

Very much like tomcat, to use it as a container you need to:

1. download the latest release zip
2. unzip it in your computer
3. replace the example app with yours
4. run it using the script for your platform in the bin folder (for linux is bin/wrapper.sh)

Check the tutorial for more details

Maven dependency

When using it as a dependency, instead of generating a war, or jar file with your code, you will build a zip file that contains everything needed to run your code natively in different platforms. In order to do that you need to configure your project pom to include the dependency, but also to modify how the final artifact is done. Without going into much detail your pom will include these steps:

1. Include this project as a dependency
2. Ensure that your project generates an executable uber-jar
3. Replace the example app that comes in this container with your jar
4. Pack everything in a zip file that containes this container with your custom app
5. Distribute as needed ;-)

Check the tutorial for more details.
You can also see a working example project here

Contact

You can contact me for any problems or suggestions in the setup at dario.garcia at 10pines.com (but please make the effort of trying to figure it out by yourself first ;-)