Publishing a Java Application

After coding and testing a Java application (lets say with Eclipse, but not necessarily) what steps should be taken to publish the final version. For example, with a Android application,

you have to version your app, in an XML manifest file (mainly for the Google Play store). And then you usually sign the application using the Java keytool. Of the textbooks on Java that I have none of them mention any standard procedure for finalizing and publishing an app.

Could you explain the standard procedure?

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Okay, the first thing you'll want to do is package your app in a jar file with a main-class in the manifest. There's a section in the Java Tutorial on that.

Then, it depends on the environments you want to support. The easiest thing is simply to provide the user with that jar file. In most desktop environments you can run the jar file from the file explorer by simply clicking (or double-clicking) the file.

You can make a command line version by simply wrapping the jar file with a command file. In a UNIX/Linux environment, it's as simple as

#!/bin/bash
java -jar myapp.jar

Beyond that, you begin needing to look into application installers, which are inherently platform-dependent.