NoClassDefFoundError on Maven dependency

By default, Maven doesn’t bundle dependencies in the JAR file it builds, and you’re not providing them on the classpath when you’re trying to execute your JAR file at the command-line. This is why the Java VM can’t find the library class files when trying to execute your code.

You could manually specify the libraries on the classpath with the -cp parameter, but that quickly becomes tiresome.

A better solution is to “shade” the library code into your output JAR file. There is a Maven plugin called the maven-shade-plugin to do this. You need to register it in your POM, and it will automatically build an “uber-JAR” containing your classes and the classes for your library code too when you run mvn package.

To simply bundle all required libraries, add the following to your POM:

<project>
  ...
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.2.4</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>shade</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  ...
</project>

Once this is done, you can rerun the commands you used above:

$ mvn package
$ java -cp target/bil138_4-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar tr.edu.hacettepe.cs.b21127113.bil138_4.App

If you want to do further configuration of the shade plugin in terms of what JARs should be included, specifying a Main-Class for an executable JAR file, and so on, see the “Examples” section on the maven-shade-plugin site.