I'm constantly reminded about the horrible reality of working with jar libraries. I have a project that generates several deployables, including a server and client jar file. However being dependent on external jars makes it messy to do quick releases. I would love to have a way of bundling jars together in a master jars just like war files or ear files. This would allow me to release a packaged jar with the right libraries included in the jar file.

I'm aware of the ability to link libraries using classpath references in the manifest file however I want something nice and easy. Does anyone know of a way to archieve this ? If not, is there an interest for such a tool.

Basically a jar in jar file with a custom classloader that loads all classes and passes control to the real main method ?