Java

Ant-based Java packages are typically built from source as follows:

stdenv.mkDerivation {
  pname = "...";
  version = "...";

  src = fetchurl { /* ... */ };

  nativeBuildInputs = [
    ant
    jdk
    stripJavaArchivesHook # removes timestamp metadata from jar files
  ];

  buildPhase = ''
    runHook preBuild
    ant # build the project using ant
    runHook postBuild
  '';

  installPhase = ''
    runHook preInstall

    # copy generated jar file(s) to an appropriate location in $out
    install -Dm644 build/foo.jar $out/share/java/foo.jar

    runHook postInstall
  '';
}

Note that jdk is an alias for the OpenJDK (self-built where available, or pre-built via Zulu). Platforms with OpenJDK not (yet) in Nixpkgs (Aarch32, Aarch64) point to the (unfree) oraclejdk.

Also note that not using stripJavaArchivesHook will likely cause the generated .jar files to be non-deterministic, which is not optimal. Using it, however, does not always guarantee reproducibility.

JAR files that are intended to be used by other packages should be installed in $out/share/java. JDKs have a stdenv setup hook that add any JARs in the share/java directories of the build inputs to the CLASSPATH environment variable. For instance, if the package libfoo installs a JAR named foo.jar in its share/java directory, and another package declares the attribute

{
  buildInputs = [ libfoo ];
  nativeBuildInputs = [ jdk ];
}

then CLASSPATH will be set to /nix/store/...-libfoo/share/java/foo.jar.

Private JARs should be installed in a location like $out/share/package-name.

If your Java package provides a program, you need to generate a wrapper script to run it using a JRE. You can use makeWrapper for this:

{
  nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper ];

  installPhase = ''
    mkdir -p $out/bin
    makeWrapper ${jre}/bin/java $out/bin/foo \
      --add-flags "-cp $out/share/java/foo.jar org.foo.Main"
  '';
}

Since the introduction of the Java Platform Module System in Java 9, Java distributions typically no longer ship with a general-purpose JRE: instead, they allow generating a JRE with only the modules required for your application(s). Because we can't predict what modules will be needed on a general-purpose system, the default jre package is the full JDK. When building a minimal system/image, you can override the modules parameter on jre_minimal to build a JRE with only the modules relevant for you:

let
  my_jre = pkgs.jre_minimal.override {
    modules = [
      # The modules used by 'something' and 'other' combined:
      "java.base"
      "java.logging"
    ];
  };
  something = (pkgs.something.override { jre = my_jre; });
  other = (pkgs.other.override { jre = my_jre; });
in
  <...>

You can also specify what JDK your JRE should be based on, for example selecting a 'headless' build to avoid including a link to GTK+:

{
  my_jre = pkgs.jre_minimal.override {
    jdk = jdk11_headless;
  };
}

Note all JDKs passthru home, so if your application requires environment variables like JAVA_HOME being set, that can be done in a generic fashion with the --set argument of makeWrapper:

--set JAVA_HOME ${jdk.home}

It is possible to use a different Java compiler than javac from the OpenJDK. For instance, to use the GNU Java Compiler:

{
  nativeBuildInputs = [ gcj ant ];
}

Here, Ant will automatically use gij (the GNU Java Runtime) instead of the OpenJRE.