Introduction

Münchhausen is a utility for bootstrapping Java programs.

Java programs often need a bunch of JAR-files in classpath in order to run, but the startup scripts for finding the dependencies and creating proper classpath might become quite complex and are not portable between different systems. Münchhausen simplifies this procedure: it scans given directory for JAR-files, constructs a ClassLoader that includes the archives and then calls the main class of the application.

Münchhausen is dedicated to Baron Münchhausen who, according to a German legend, was able to lift himself out of a swamp by pulling himself up by his bootstraps.

Basic usage

To start an application whose main-class is "foo.FooMain" and whose JAR files are found somewhere in the directory tree rooted at current directory, you can simply say:

java -Dbootstrap.mainclass=foo.FooMain -jar munchhausen-x.y.jar <arguments>

The arguments are passed directly to application's main method.

Configuration properties

The following system properties can be used to customize the functionality:

• bootstrap.mainclass - The main class of the application. (Required.)
• bootstrap.libdir - Root-directory for scanned JAR-files. (Default is current directory.)
• bootstrap.resourcedir - Additional directory added to classpath. (Optional.)