sbt-assembly

Deploy über JARs. Restart processes.

sbt-assembly is a sbt plugin originally ported from codahale's assembly-sbt, which I'm guessing was inspired by Maven's assembly plugin. The goal is simple: Create a über JAR of your project with all of its dependencies.

Requirements

• sbt
• The burning desire to have a simple deploy procedure.

Reporting Issues & Contributing

Before you email me, please read Issue Reporting Guideline carefully. Twice. (Don't email me)

Setup

Using Published Plugin

Add sbt-assembly as a dependency in project/plugins.sbt:

addSbtPlugin("com.eed3si9n" % "sbt-assembly" % "x.y.z")

Starting in sbt-assembly 1.2.0, sbt 0.13.x has been deprecated. Please use 1.1.0 if this is required.

Usage

Since sbt-assembly is now an auto plugin that's triggered for all projects with JvmPlugin, it shouldn't require extra setup to include assembly task into your project. See migration guide for details on how to upgrade from older sbt-assembly.

Applying the plugin to multi-project build.sbt

For example, here's a multi-project build.sbt:

ThisBuild / version := "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"
ThisBuild / organization := "com.example"
ThisBuild / scalaVersion := "2.13.11"

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assembly / mainClass := Some("com.example.Main"),
    // more settings here ...
  )

lazy val utils = (project in file("utils"))
  .settings(
    assembly / assemblyJarName := "utils.jar",
    // more settings here ...
  )

In the above example, both the app project and the utils project do not run tests during assembly. The app project sets a main class whereas the utils project sets the name of its jar file.

assembly task

Now you'll have an awesome new assembly task which will compile your project, run your tests, and then pack your class files and all your dependencies into a single JAR file: target/scala_X.X.X/projectname-assembly-X.X.X.jar.

> assembly

If you specify a assembly / mainClass in build.sbt (or just let it autodetect one) then you'll end up with a fully executable JAR, ready to rock.

Here is the list of the keys you can rewire that are scoped to current subproject's assembly task:

assemblyJarName               test                          mainClass
assemblyOutputPath            assemblyOption

And here is the list of the keys you can rewite that are scoped globally:

assemblyAppendContentHash     assemblyCacheOutput           assemblyShadeRules
assemblyExcludedJars          assemblyMergeStrategy         assemblyRepeatableBuild

Keys scoped to the subproject should be placed in .settings(...) whereas the globally scoped keys can either be placed inside of .settings(...) or scoped using ThisBuild / to be shared across multiple subprojects.

For example the name of the jar can be set as follows in build.sbt:

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assembly / assemblyJarName := "something.jar",
    // more settings here ...
  )

To set an explicit main class,

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assembly / mainClass := Some("com.example.Main"),
    // more settings here ...
  )

To run the test during assembly,

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assembly / test := (Test / test).value,
    // more settings here ...
  )

Excluding an explicit main class from your assembly requires something a little bit different though

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assembly / packageOptions ~= { pos =>
      pos.filterNot { po =>
        po.isInstanceOf[Package.MainClass]
      }
    },
    // more settings here ...
  )

Merge Strategy

If multiple files share the same relative path (e.g. a resource named application.conf in multiple dependency JARs), the default strategy is to verify that all candidates have the same contents and error out otherwise. This behavior can be configured on a per-path basis using either one of the following built-in strategies or writing a custom one:

• MergeStrategy.deduplicate is the default described above
• MergeStrategy.first picks the first of the matching files in classpath order
• MergeStrategy.last picks the last one
• MergeStrategy.singleOrError bails out with an error message on conflict
• MergeStrategy.concat simply concatenates all matching files and includes the result. There is also an overload that accepts a line separator for formatting the result
• MergeStrategy.filterDistinctLines also concatenates, but leaves out duplicates along the way. There is also an overload that accepts a Charset for reading the lines
• MergeStrategy.rename renames the files originating from jar files
• MergeStrategy.discard simply discards matching files
• MergeStrategy.preferProject will choose the first project file over library files if present. Otherwise, it works like MergeStrategy.first

The mapping of path names to merge strategies is done via the setting assemblyMergeStrategy which can be augmented as follows:

ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy := {
  case PathList("javax", "servlet", xs @ _*)         => MergeStrategy.first
  case PathList(ps @ _*) if ps.last endsWith ".html" => MergeStrategy.first
  case "application.conf"                            => MergeStrategy.concat
  case "unwanted.txt"                                => MergeStrategy.discard
  case x =>
    val oldStrategy = (ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy).value
    oldStrategy(x)
}

NOTE:

• Actually, a merge strategy serves two purposes:

  • To merge conflicting files
  • To transform a single file (despite the naming), such as in the case of a MergeStrategy.rename. Sometimes, the transformation is a pass-through, as in the case of a MergeStrategy.deduplicate if there are no conflicts on a target path.

• ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy expects a function. You can't do ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy := MergeStrategy.first!

• Some files must be discarded or renamed otherwise to avoid breaking the zip (due to duplicate file name) or the legal license. Delegate default handling to (ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy) as the above pattern matching example.

• Renames are processed first, since renamed file targets might match more merge patterns afterwards. By default, LICENSEs and READMEs are renamed before applying every other merge strategy. If you need a custom logic for renaming, create a new rename merge strategy so it is processsed first, along with the custom logic. See how to create custom MergeStrategys in a later section of this README.

• There is an edge case that may occasionally fail. If a project has a file that has the same relative path as a directory to be written, an error notification will be written to the console as shown below. To resolve this, create a shade rule or a new merge strategy.

    [error] Files to be written at 'shadeio' have the same name as directories to be written:
    [error]   Jar name = commons-io-2.4.jar, jar org = commons-io, entry target = shadeio/input/Tailer.class (from original source = org/apache/commons/io/input/Tailer.class)
    [error]   Project name = foo, target = shadeio

By the way, the first case pattern in the above using PathList(...) is how you can pick javax/servlet/* from the first jar. If the default MergeStrategy.deduplicate is not working for you, that likely means you have multiple versions of some library pulled by your dependency graph. The real solution is to fix that dependency graph. You can work around it by MergeStrategy.first but don't be surprised when you see ClassNotFoundException.

Here is the default:

  val defaultMergeStrategy: String => MergeStrategy = {
    case x if Assembly.isConfigFile(x) =>
      MergeStrategy.concat
    case PathList(ps @ _*) if Assembly.isReadme(ps.last) || Assembly.isLicenseFile(ps.last) =>
      MergeStrategy.rename
    case PathList("META-INF", xs @ _*) =>
      (xs map {_.toLowerCase}) match {
        case ("manifest.mf" :: Nil) | ("index.list" :: Nil) | ("dependencies" :: Nil) =>
          MergeStrategy.discard
        case ps @ (x :: xs) if ps.last.endsWith(".sf") || ps.last.endsWith(".dsa") =>
          MergeStrategy.discard
        case "plexus" :: xs =>
          MergeStrategy.discard
        case "services" :: xs =>
          MergeStrategy.filterDistinctLines
        case ("spring.schemas" :: Nil) | ("spring.handlers" :: Nil) =>
          MergeStrategy.filterDistinctLines
        case _ => MergeStrategy.deduplicate
      }
    case _ => MergeStrategy.deduplicate
  }

Creating a custom Merge Strategy (since 2.0.0)

Custom merge strategies can be plugged-in to the assemblyMergeStrategy function, for example:

...
ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy := {
  case "matching-file" => CustomMergeStrategy("my-custom-merge-strat") { conflicts =>
    // NB! same as MergeStrategy.discard
    Right(Vector.empty)
  }
  case x   =>
    val oldStrategy = (ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy).value
    oldStrategy(x)
}
...

The CustomMergeStrategy accepts a name and a notifyIfGTE that affects how the result is reported in the logs. Please see the scaladoc for more details.

Finally, to perform the actual merge/transformation logic, a function has to be provided. The function acceptsa Vector of Dependency, where you can access the target of type String and the byte payload of type LazyInputStream, which is just a type alias for () => InputStream.

The input Dependency also has two subtypes that you can pattern match on:

• Project represents an internal/project dependency
• Library represents an external/library dependency that also contains the ModuleCoordinate (jar org, name and version) it originated from

To create a merge result, a Vector of JarEntry must be returned wrapped in an Either.Right, or empty to discard these conflicts from the final jar. JarEntry only has two fields, a target of type String and the byte payload of type lazy InputStream.

To fail the assembly, return an Either.Left with an error message.

There is also a factory specifically for renames, so it gets processed first along with the built-in rename merge strategy, before other merge strategies, as mentioned in a previous section. It accepts a function Dependency -> String, so the Dependency can be inspected and a new target path returned.

Here is an example that appends a String to the original target path of the matched file.

...
case "matching-file" =>
  import sbtassembly.Assembly.{Project, Library}
  CustomMergeStrategy.rename {
    case dependency@(_: Project) => dependency.target + "_from_project"
    case dependency@(_: Library) => dependency.target + "_from_library"
  }
...

For more information/examples, see the scaladoc/source code in sbtassembly.Assembly and sbtassembly.MergeStrategy.

NOTE:

• The name parameter will be distinguished from a built-in strategy. For example, the name=First will execute its custom logic along with the built-in MergeStrategy.first. They cannot cancel/override one another. In fact, the custom merge strategy will be logged as First (Custom) for clarity.
• However, you should still choose a unique name for a custom merge strategy within the build. Even if all built-in and custom merge strategies are guaranteed to execute if they match a pattern regardless of their names, similarly-named custom merge strategies will have their log reports joined. YMMV, but you are encouraged to avoid duplicate names.

Third Party Merge Strategy Plugins

Support for special-case merge strategies beyond the generic scope can be provided by companion plugins, below is a non-exhaustive list:

• Log4j2 Plugin Caches: merge Log4j2Plugins.dat binaries

Shading

sbt-assembly can shade classes from your projects or from the library dependencies. Backed by Jar Jar Links, bytecode transformation (via ASM) is used to change references to the renamed classes.

ThisBuild / assemblyShadeRules := Seq(
  ShadeRule.rename("org.apache.commons.io.**" -> "shadeio.@1").inAll
)

Here are the shade rules:

• ShadeRule.rename("x.**" -> "y.@1", ...).inAll This is the main rule.
• ShadeRule.zap("a.b.c").inAll
• ShadeRule.keep("x.**").inAll

The main ShadeRule.rename rule is used to rename classes. All references to the renamed classes will also be updated. If a class name is matched by more than one rule, only the first one will apply. The rename rules takes a vararg of String pairs in <pattern> -> <result> format:

• <pattern> is a class name with optional wildcards. ** will match against any valid class name substring. To match a single package component (by excluding . from the match), a single * may be used instead.
• <result> is a class name which can optionally reference the substrings matched by the wildcards. A numbered reference is available for every * or ** in the <pattern>, starting from left to right: @1, @2, etc. A special @0 reference contains the entire matched class name.

Instead of .inAll, call .inProject to match your project source, or call .inLibrary("commons-io" % "commons-io" % "2.4", ...) to match specific library dependencies. inProject and inLibrary(...) can be chained.

ThisBuild / assemblyShadeRules := Seq(
  ShadeRule.rename("org.apache.commons.io.**" -> "shadeio.@1").inLibrary("commons-io" % "commons-io" % "2.4", ...).inProject
)

The ShadeRule.zap rule causes any matched class to be removed from the resulting jar file. All zap rules are processed before renaming rules.

The ShadeRule.keep rule marks all matched classes as "roots". If any keep rules are defined all classes which are not reachable from the roots via dependency analysis are discarded when writing the output jar. This is the last step in the process, after renaming and zapping.

To see the verbose output for shading:

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assembly / logLevel := Level.Debug
    // more settings here ...
  )

Scala libraries

Scala classes contain an annotation which, among other things, contain all symbols referenced in that class. As of sbt-assembly XXX the rename rules will be applied to these annotations as well which makes it possible to compile or reflect against a shaded library.

This is currently limited to renaming packages. Renaming class names will not work and cause compiler errors when compiling against the shaded library.

Excluding JARs and files

If you need to tell sbt-assembly to ignore JARs, you're probably doing it wrong. assembly task grabs deps JARs from your project's classpath. Try fixing the classpath first.

% "provided" configuration

If you're trying to exclude JAR files that are already part of the container (like Spark), consider scoping the dependent library to "provided" configuration:

libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
  "org.apache.spark" %% "spark-core" % "0.8.0-incubating" % "provided",
  "org.apache.hadoop" % "hadoop-client" % "2.0.0-cdh4.4.0" % "provided"
)

Maven defines "provided" as:

This is much like compile, but indicates you expect the JDK or a container to provide the dependency at runtime. For example, when building a web application for the Java Enterprise Edition, you would set the dependency on the Servlet API and related Java EE APIs to scope provided because the web container provides those classes. This scope is only available on the compilation and test classpath, and is not transitive.

The dependency will be part of compilation and test, but excluded from the runtime. If you're using Spark and want to include "provided" dependencies back to run, @douglaz has come up with a one-liner solution on StackOverflow sbt: how can I add "provided" dependencies back to run/test tasks' classpath?:

Compile / run := Defaults.runTask(Compile / fullClasspath, Compile / run / mainClass, Compile / run / runner).evaluated

Exclude specific transitive deps

You might be thinking about excluding JAR files because of the merge conflicts. Merge conflict of *.class files indicate pathological classpath, often due to non-modular bundle JAR files or SLF4J, not the problem with assembly. Here's what happens when you try to create a über JAR with Spark included:

[error] (*:assembly) deduplicate: different file contents found in the following:
[error] /Users/foo/.ivy2/cache/org.eclipse.jetty.orbit/javax.servlet/orbits/javax.servlet-2.5.0.v201103041518.jar:javax/servlet/SingleThreadModel.class
[error] /Users/foo/.ivy2/cache/org.mortbay.jetty/servlet-api/jars/servlet-api-2.5-20081211.jar:javax/servlet/SingleThreadModel.class

In the above case two separate JAR files javax.servlet-2.5.0.v201103041518.jar and servlet-api-2.5-20081211.jar are defining javax/servlet/SingleThreadModel.class! Similarly also conflicts on common-beanutils and EsotericSoftware/minlog. Here's how to evict specific transitive deps:

libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
  ("org.apache.spark" %% "spark-core" % "0.8.0-incubating").
    exclude("org.mortbay.jetty", "servlet-api").
    exclude("commons-beanutils", "commons-beanutils-core").
    exclude("commons-collections", "commons-collections").
    exclude("commons-logging", "commons-logging").
    exclude("com.esotericsoftware.minlog", "minlog")
)

See sbt's Exclude Transitive Dependencies for more details.

Sometimes it takes a bit of detective work to figure out which transitive deps to exclude. Play! comes with dist task, so assembly is not needed, but suppose we wanted to run assembly. It brings in signpost-commonshttp4, which leads to commons-logging. This conflicts with jcl-over-slf4j, which re-implements the logging API. Since the deps are added via build.sbt and playScalaSettings, here's one way to work around it:

libraryDependencies ~= { _ map {
  case m if m.organization == "com.typesafe.play" =>
    m.exclude("commons-logging", "commons-logging").
      exclude("com.typesafe.play", "sbt-link")
  case m => m
}}

Excluding specific files

To exclude specific files, customize merge strategy:

ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy := {
  case PathList("about.html") => MergeStrategy.rename
  case x =>
    val oldStrategy = (ThisBuild / assemblyMergeStrategy).value
    oldStrategy(x)
}

Splitting your project and deps JARs

To make a JAR file containing only the external dependencies, type

> assemblyPackageDependency

This is intended to be used with a JAR that only contains your project

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assemblyPackageScala / assembleArtifact := false,
    assemblyPackageDependency / assembleArtifact := false,

    // or as follows
    assembly / assemblyOption ~= {
      _.withIncludeScala(false)
       .withIncludeDependency(false)
    },

    // more settings here ...
  )

NOTE: If you use -jar option for java, it will ignore -cp, so if you have multiple JAR files you have to use -cp and pass the main class: java -cp "jar1.jar:jar2.jar" Main

Excluding Scala library JARs

To exclude Scala library (JARs that start with scala- and are included in the binary Scala distribution) to run with scala command,

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assemblyPackageScala / assembleArtifact := false,

    // or as follows
    assembly / assemblyOption ~= {
      _.withIncludeScala(false)
    },

    // more settings here ...
  )

assemblyExcludedJars

If all efforts fail, here's a way to exclude JAR files:

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
    assembly / assemblyExcludedJars := {
      val cp = (assembly / fullClasspath).value
      cp filter {_.data.getName == "compile-0.1.0.jar"}
    },

    // more settings here ...
  )

Other Things

Content hash

You can also append SHA-1 fingerprint to the assembly file name, this may help you to determine whether it has changed and, for example, if it's necessary to deploy the dependencies,

ThisBuild / assemblyAppendContentHash := true

// or
lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
     assembly / assemblyOption ~= { _.withAppendContentHash(true) }
  )

Caching

Caching is implemented by checking all the input dependencies (class and jar files)' latest timestamp and some configuration changes from the build file.

In addition the über JAR is cached so its timestamp changes only when the input changes.

To disable caching:

ThisBuild / assemblyCacheOutput := false

// or
lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
     assembly / assemblyOption ~= { _.withCacheOutput(false) }
  )

NOTE:

• Unfortunately, using a custom MergeStrategy other than rename will create a function in which the plugin cannot predict the outcome. This custom function must always be executed if it matches a PathList pattern, and thus, will disable caching.

Jar assembly performance

By default, the setting key assemblyRepeatableBuild is set to true. This ensures that the jar entries are assembled in a specific order, resulting in a consistent hash for the jar.

There is actually a performance improvement to be gained if this setting is set to false, since jar entries will now be assembled in parallel. The trade-off is, the jar will not have a consistent hash, and thus, caching will not work.

To set the repeatable build to false:

ThisBuild / assemblyRepeatableBuild := false

If a repeatable build/consistent jar is not of much importance, one may avail of this feature for improved performance, especially for large projects.

Prepending a launch script

Your can prepend a launch script to the über jar. This script will be a valid shell and batch script and will make the jar executable on Unix and Windows. If you enable the shebang the file will be detected as an executable under Linux but this will cause an error message to appear on Windows. On Windows just append a ".bat" to the files name to make it executable.

import sbtassembly.AssemblyPlugin.defaultUniversalScript

ThisBuild / assemblyPrependShellScript := Some(defaultUniversalScript(shebang = false))

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
     assembly / assemblyJarName := s"${name.value}-${version.value}"
  )

This will prepend the following shell script to the jar.

(#!/usr/bin/env sh)
@ 2>/dev/null # 2>nul & echo off & goto BOF
:
exec java -jar $JAVA_OPTS "$0" "$@"
exit

:BOF
@echo off
java -jar %JAVA_OPTS% "%~dpnx0" %*
exit /B %errorlevel%

You can also choose to prepend just the shell script to the über jar as follows:

import sbtassembly.AssemblyPlugin.defaultShellScript

ThisBuild / assemblyPrependShellScript := Some(defaultShellScript)

lazy val app = (project in file("app"))
  .settings(
     assembly / assemblyJarName := s"${name.value}-${version.value}"
  )

Publishing (Not Recommended)

Publishing über JARs out to the world is discouraged because non-modular JARs cause much sadness. One might think non-modularity is convenience but it quickly turns into a headache the moment your users step outside of Hello World example code. If you still wish to publish your assembled artifact along with the publish task and all of the other artifacts, add an assembly classifier (or other):

assembly / artifact := {
  val art = (assembly / artifact).value
  art.withClassifier(Some("assembly"))
}

addArtifact(assembly / artifact, assembly)

Q: Despite the concerned friends, I still want publish über JARs. What advice do you have?

You would likely need to set up a front business to lie about what dependencies you have in pom.xml and ivy.xml. To do so, make a subproject for über JAR purpose only where you depend on the dependencies, and make a second cosmetic subproject that you use only for publishing purpose:

lazy val uberJar = project
  .enablePlugins(AssemblyPlugin)
  .settings(
    depend on the good stuff
    publish / skip := true
  )

lazy val cosmetic = project
  .settings(
    name := "shaded-something",
    // I am sober. no dependencies.
    Compile / packageBin := (uberJar / assembly).value
  )

License

Published under The MIT License, see LICENSE

Copyright e.e d3si9n, LLC

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.