too long line in manifest file while trying to create jar

Question

I am getting a too long line error while trying to build a jar. the long line in the manifest file is the Class-Path line as the application uses a lot of third-party libraries. needless to say, I am using Windows :-( and Eclipse Java 1.6

I tried Class-Path: lib or Class-Path: lib/ but they did not work.

Answer 1

the classpath is too long due to the number of jar files in it. The maximum characters in the classpath list per line should not exceed 72.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/jar/jar.html

use as the following way to resolve the problem:

(1) use separate lines, to avoid too long a line for java package name lists

(2) type a preceding space before each folloing lines, for example: Class-Path: ...jar ...jar ...jar