如何从 Java 项目创建一个完全可移植的 exe？

Question

My goal is simply to take my Java project (JDK 11, Javafx, non-modular, using Gradle in Intellij) and package into a single exe file. No installer, no JRE required for the user. There are various packaging and exe creation tools, but I've yet to get one working the way I want to.

At first I tried javapackager but Inno Setup kept erroring. Then I managed to get launch4j working, but I found out a bit ago that there was no embedded JRE in that, so it couldn't run on computers without Java. I also looked into jPackage but from what I've seen it only creates installers and I also had trouble setting it up. I ended up looping back to javapackager with the advice to use Inno Setup 5 instead of 6, and that worked, but the result was an installer, with seemingly no options either (at least by default)

Is what I want to achieve just not possible, even though it seems to me like it should be? If so, what could be the closest I could achieve? The most important thing is for users to not have to worry about having Java installed, the rest of the stuff I can probably work with

Answer 1

This works for me: Fristly, extract make your project to a .jar - in IntelliJ you'd build an artifact . When you got this .jar -file, i can recommend the following things:

1. A folder , in which you perform all of these steps, so that all is neat and tidy .
2. locate your project JRE
3. and maybe an icon for your .exe

Now copy the icon for your .exe , and the bin - and lib -folders of your JRE in another folder eg called "jre" in the folder(1).

The structure should look something like this: Folder->{icon.ico, jre ->{bin, lib}, yourProjectJar.jar}

When you have this done, download launch4j and run it. In there (under Basic), it is mandatory to choose an output file with the .exe -extension and to choose the folder in which you put the bin - and lib -folders of your project jre. Non-Mandatory is to choose an icon for your .exe - you can also find this under the Basic-Tab.

The last mandatory step is to go to the JRE-Tab and insert the absolute path for eg called "jre" folder in which the bin - and lib -folder of your project jre are for "Bundled JRE paths". Then choose your Min JRE version (again, in the JRE-Tab) and make sure to have the drop-down to your right set to "Only use private JDK runtimes".

Lastly, click on "Build Wrapper" (it's the fourth symbol looking from the left) and after choosing a place for your Manifest there you should have it.

Greets, JC

PS: this should give you an .exe with the JRE of your project and is thus runnable on any System. Congrats. You just used an advantage of Java compared to some other languages.