Lately I wrote myself some small GUI tools using Groovy’s SwingBuilder. To “install” them in my system I wanted to create a single JAR file containing all the required dependencies. Using the following maven plugin configuration it was very easy to achieve that:

<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <archive>
            <manifest>
                <mainClass>fully.qualified.MainClass</mainClass>
            </manifest>
        </archive>
        <descriptorRefs>
            <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
        </descriptorRefs>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Running the mvn assembly:assembly command created the desired JAR file containing the MANIFEST file that runs the right Class on double clicking the JAR.