Scala Cookbook

18.2. Compiling, Running, and Packaging a Scala Project with SBT

Problem

You want to use SBT to compile and run a Scala project, and package the project as a JAR file.

Solution

Create a directory layout to match what SBT expects, then run sbt compile to compile your project, sbt run to run your project, and sbt package to package your project as a JAR file.

To demonstrate this, create a new SBT project directory structure as shown in Recipe 18.1, and then create a file named Hello.scala in the src/main/scala directory with these contents:

package foo.bar.baz

object Main extends App {
  println("Hello, world")
}

Unlike Java, in Scala, the file’s package name doesn’t have to match the directory name. In fact, for simple tests like this, you can place this file in the root directory of your SBT project, if you prefer.

From the root directory of the project, you can compile the project:

$ sbt compile

Run the project:

$ sbt run

Package the project:

$ sbt package

Discussion

The first time you run SBT, it may take a while to download all the dependencies it needs, but after that first run, it will download new dependencies only as needed. The commands executed in the Solution, along with their output, are shown here:

$ sbt compile

[info] Loading global plugins from /Users/Al/.sbt/plugins
[info] Set current project to Basic (in build file:/Users/Al/SbtTests/)
[success] Total time: 0 s

$ sbt run [info] Loading global plugins from /Users/Al/.sbt/plugins [info] Set current project to Basic (in build file:/Users/Al/SbtTests/) ...