Java - Application

About

An application in shipped in an archive format with a main class that contains a main method that starts the application.

Every Java application has a single instance of class Runtime that allows the application to interface with the Operating System environment in which the application is running.

How to start a java application in its own process with the jvm directly from the console

You can start a java application by creating a shell script.

java -cp ../lib/myApplication.jar com.mypackage.myMainClass arg1 arg2

where:

java is the java virtual machine
cp is the classpath where you will have your application and all your dependency.
myApplication.jar is a jar (archive) of all your application class and resources that is stored normally in a lib directory.
com.mypackage.myMainClass is your main class
arg1 arg2 are arguments passed to the main method of your main class

With a executable jar, you just need to call the jar with java.

java -jar my_executable.jar

A Java EE application is packaged into one or more standard units for deployment to any Java EE platform-compliant system.

Each unit contains:

A functional component or components, such as an enterprise bean, web page, servlet, or applet
An optional deployment descriptor that describes its content

Once a Java EE unit has been produced, it is ready to be deployed. Once deployed, the application is ready to run.

A launcher is a java class that take into account all the steps needed to start your application. This is an advanced technique.