Question

When I run “clean and build” the .jar file that is being created only runs if the lib folder is at the same folder of the .jar file.

So if I move the jar file to the desktop and leave the lib folder in the dist folder, the jar file will give me an exception.

How can I deal with this problem?

Answer 1

If you copy your jars into the source code directory, they will be in your final jar. Nevetheless, I am not sure if this will work 100% of the time.

There is a great post at java-forum that states the following:

Except for a select few circumstances, what works best for me is to
simply merge the files manually. A .jar is basically a .zip with
organized contents, and you can open them in almost any .zip capable
archive program (I just use gnome’s standard archiver, File Roller,
and it works great). Backup your jar file and open it in the archiver
of your choice, and do the same for each library jar in the library
directory. Drag and drop the working folders (IE, everything EXCEPT
the META-INF Directory) from each library into your jar’s root path
(alongside your META-INF and your app’s root package). Now drag the
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file from your jar to your Desktop or any other
folder. Open it, and erase the Class-Path and X-COMMENT lines. Don’t
forget to leave a blank newline at the end of the file! Save the new
manifest file and drag it back to your jar’s META-INF directory,
overwriting the old one. Test the jar.