How to solve could not find or load main class error with spring boot?

I created a Maven project for Spring Boot. I have a lot of Spring dependencies and one main class:

package com.vastserver;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class MyArtifactApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

//      SpringApplication.run(MyArtifactApplication.class, args);
        System.out.println("hello!");
    }

}

The folder structure of src directory is:

.
└── main
    ├── java
    │   └── com
    │       └── vastserver
    │           └── MyArtifactApplication.java
    └── resources
        └── application.properties

In my pom.xml I use maven-assembly-plugin in order to build my project in a standalone .jar file. Even though I triple checked that the directory structure and main class file appear correctly in the pom.xml I keep getting the error: Error: Could not find or load main class com.vastserver.MyArtifactApplication when I run mvn package and then java -cp target/vast-ad-server-artifactId-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar com.vastserver.MyArtifactApplication or mvn exec:exec. The main class does work if I run it from Intellij so I know the code is not the problem but rather Maven build settings. I lost at where my problem could be.

My pom.xml looks as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.1.6.RELEASE</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.release>11</maven.compiler.release>
        <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
        <mainClass>com.vastserver.MyArtifactApplication</mainClass>
        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
        <targetSnapshot>target/vast-ad-server-artifactId-1.0-SNAPSHOT</targetSnapshot>
        <targetWithDependencies>${targetSnapshot}-${descriptorRef}.jar</targetWithDependencies>
    </properties>

    <groupId>com.vastserver</groupId>
    <artifactId>vast-ad-server-artifactId</artifactId>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-activemq</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
            <optional>true</optional>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
            <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>single</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <archive>
                                <manifest>
                                    <mainClass>${mainClass}</mainClass>
                                </manifest>
                            </archive>
                            <descriptorRefs>
                                <descriptorRef>${descriptorRef}</descriptorRef>
                            </descriptorRefs>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.3.2</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>exec</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <configuration>
                    <executable>java</executable>
                    <arguments>
                        <argument>-cp</argument>
                        <argument>${targetWithDependencies}</argument>
                        <argument>${mainClass}</argument>
                    </arguments>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Answer

I think you should check the directory structure of the artifact that was built by maven. Usually, spring boot artifacts are prepared by a special spring boot plugin and not by a maven assembly plugin.

Although it shares the “jar” suffix, it’s not really a jar, it has special classloader to load classes from BOOT-INF/lib folder.

I’ve already provided a detailed answer on what happens exactly when the spring boot application starts here but bottom line if you use assembly plugin you’ll have to prepare both manifest file and a fairly complicated structure of folders. Frankly, I think you should use spring boot plugin as a first resort to build spring boot applications.