How to Use Eclipse 4.3 with the Fat Jar Plugin to Bundle Third‑Party JARs into a Single Executable JAR

Scenario

In Eclipse, a Java Application that references external JAR files can be packaged into a single JAR not only by adding a MANIFEST.MF file but also by using the Fat Jar plugin.

Implementation

1. Download an Eclipse 4.3 (Kepler) installer from the official Eclipse site, for example the 4.3.2 Windows package for Java Developers, and unzip it.

2. Launch Eclipse by double‑clicking eclipse.exe and select a workspace.

3. Open Help → Install New Software , click Add , and enter a custom name with the following location:

http://kurucz-grafika.de/fatjar

4. Follow the installation wizard step‑by‑step; after the plug‑in is installed, restart Eclipse.

5. Right‑click the project, choose Export → Other → Fat Jar Exporter .

6. Select the project to export and click Next .

7. On the configuration page, set the JAR name (e.g., using the name of an external JAR), choose the main class, and enable the option to export as a single JAR.

8. The next screen lists the third‑party JARs (typically located under lib). Check all required libraries and click Finish .

9. Eclipse creates a single JAR that includes the project classes and all selected external JARs.

At this point the application can be run directly from the generated JAR without needing separate library files.