How to create an executable jar file with maven

Executable jars may be created using the maven shade plugin. The shade plugin allows for the creation of 'uber-jars'. This are self contained jar files which contain the application code as well as all dependencies.
The shade plugin is configured in the build-section of your pom.xml:

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <!-- put your configurations here -->
        </configuration>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>shade</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

To make the jar file executable, is has to contain an MANIFEST.MF which names the class containing the main function. Just add the following lines to the plugin config:

<configuration>
  <transformers>
    <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
      <mainClass>path.to.MainClass</mainClass>
    </transformer>
  </transformers>
</configuration>

See also: http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-shade-plugin/examples/executable-jar.html