Eclipe Ganymede - Executable Jars

Eclipse Ganymede (3.3) has some cool new features. One that I just discovered today is really cool and saved me a bunch of time: Export to Executable Jars.

Here is how it works: make a Java program with a runnable class. Build up your build path and get a clean compile. Execute your program locally with the normal "Run as..." tools. This isn't anything new. The new thing is the ability to export to a single, executable jar file.

Here is how:

• Right click on project
• Choose "Export"
• Choose "Runnable JAR file"
• Follow the prompts to pick the runner and the destination

When the export is finished, you can execute this single jar as: java -jar [jarfile].jar

Use Case:
Here is how I use this: I am developing a database app that needs to suck in data from a MySQL database stored on a remote system. I can VPN in over my DSL line, and it works great for testing. I usually add a "limit 100" or some reasonable number to large select statements so I can debug quickly. Then, when I'm ready to run the program "for real" on the large dataset (this one contains over 100,000 entries of large XML fields, I don't really want to run this over my DSL line. Many reasons for this:

• Tie up my Powerbook from other cool things
• Saturate my DSL line
• Tie up records in my database waiting for data buffers to flush in between locks

In the past, I manually concocted a UNIX tar file with all of the dependent jars, classes, etc. and used SSH's "scp" feature to move it onto the UNIX host. It wasn't too bad - but it was a pain when there were a lot of jars. One project I have uses over 50 different JAR files! Debugging was painful.

Now, I can use this feature to dump out one JAR file and execute it directly on the remote system!

FEATURE REQUEST: Use this to target a remote host, and use RSYNC to put the JAR file on the remote host and SSH to execute it.... that would be killer!