java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError when trying to instantiate class from jar

Question

I did found quite a lot about this error, but somehow none of the suggested solutions resolved the problem.

I am trying to use JNA bindings for libgphoto2 under Ubuntu in Eclipse (moderate experience with Java on Eclipse, none whatsoever on Ubuntu, I'm afraid). The bindings in question I want to use are here: http://angryelectron.com/projects/libgphoto2-jna/

I followed the steps described on that page, and made a simple test client that failed with the above error. So I reduced the test client until the only thing I tried to do was to instantiate a GPhoto2 object, which still produced the error. The test client looks like this:

import com.angryelectron.gphoto2.*;

public class test_class 
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        GPhoto2 cam = new GPhoto2();
    }

}

The errors I get take up considerably more space:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/sun/jna/Structure
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:760)
    at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:467)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:73)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:368)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:362)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:361)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:331)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
    at test_class.main(test_class.java:12)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.jna.Structure
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:331)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
    ... 13 more

libgphoto2 itself is installed, it runs from the command line, I even have the development headers and am able to call GPhoto2 functions from python, so the problem can't be located there.

When looking at the .class files in Eclipse, however, they didn't have any definitions. So I figured that might be the problem, especially since there was an error when building the whole thing with ant (although the .jar was succesfully exported, from what I could make out the error concerned only the generation of documentation). So I loaded the source into eclipse and built the .jar myself. At this occasion Eclipse stated there were warnings during the build (though no errors), but didn't show me the actual warnings. If anyone could tell me where the hell the build log went, that might already help something. I searched for it everywhere without success, and if I click on "details" in eclipse it merely tells me where the warnings occured, not what they were.

Be that as it may, a warning isn't necessarily devastating, so I imported the resulting Jar into the above client. I checked the .class files, this time they contained all the code. But I still get the exact same list of errors (yes, I have made very sure that the old library was removed from the classpath and the new ones added. I repeated the process several times, just in case).

Since I don't have experience with building jars, I made a small helloworld jar, just to see if I could call that from another program or if I'd be getting similar errors. It worked without a hitch. I even tried to reproduce the problem deliberately by exporting it with various options, but it still worked. I tried re-exporting the library I actully need with the settings that had worked during my experiment, but they still wouldn't run. I'm pretty much stuck by now. Any hints that help me resolve the problem would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

In addition to what @Paul Whelan has said. You might have better luck by just get the missing jar directly.

Get the missing library here , set the classpath and then re-run the application again and see whether it will run fine or not.

Answer 2

What version of java are you using com/sun/jna/Structure may only work with certain JVMs.

In general, packages such as sun. , that are outside of the Java platform, can be different across OS platforms (Solaris, Windows, Linux, Macintosh, etc.) and can change at any time without notice with SDK versions (1.2, 1.2.1, 1.2.3, etc). Programs that contain direct calls to the sun. packages are not 100% Pure Java.

More details here

Answer 3

Your jar needs a MANIFEST.MF which tells your application where the library is found. Create the file in you project root-directory in eclipse and add the following lines:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Class-Path: <PATH_TO_LIB__CAN_BE_RELATIVE>.jar       // e.g Class-Path: ../test.jar
<empty line>

Right-click your project in eclipse, go to Export->next->next->next->Use existing manifest from workspace , select it and click on finish. This should work.

Another solution is to compile the classes into the jar itself with Maven.