Name: rmT116609 Date: 12/09/2003


A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
This request is that the capability be added to provide to the jar tool a single class that contains a main method. The jar tool would automatically determine the minimal set of classes on the classpath needed to execute the application, and package only these class files into the jar file.

JUSTIFICATION :
Currently, jar file contents must either be specified manually or through ant, which, in turn, requires manually specifying the dependencies in the ant build file. Manually creating a jar file may be sufficient for small cases, and an ant build script may be necessary for large, complex software projects. However, in the common case that one wishes to create a standalone executable jar file of minimal size, enough information is present in the class files to automate this. For instance, a breadth-first search, starting at the class whose main method is to be executed, and with out-edges determined by the non-standard-library class objects created and class methods called in the class file, would suffice to discover all necessary classes.
(Incident Review ID: 230038)
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