jpackage: Creating a binary and debug it

JabRef uses jpackage to build binary application bundles and installers for Windows, Linux, and macOS. For Gradle, we use the Java Module Packaging Gradle plugin.

Building locally

Preparation on Debian/Ubuntu

Install rpm package to enable .rpm building: sudo apt-get install -y rpm

Preparation on Windows

Install WiX Toolset

  1. Open administrative shell
  2. Use Chocolatey to install it: choco install wixtoolset

Build the installer 

./gradlew -PprojVersion="6.0.50013" -PprojVersionInfo="6.0-ci.13--2025-12-19--c8e5924" :jabgui:jpackage

jabgui/build/packages/ contains a subdir for the operating systems with the packages.

Debugging jpackage installations

Sometimes issues with modularity only arise in the installed version and do not occur if you run from source. Using remote debugging, it’s still possible to hook your IDE into the running JabRef application to enable debugging.

Debugging on Windows

  1. Open build-logic\src\main\kotlin\org.jabref.gradle.base.targets.gradle.kts, remove --strip-debug
  2. Build using jpackage (or let the CI build a new version)

  3. Modify the build\packages\windows-latest\JabRef\runtime\bin\Jabref.bat file, replace the last line with

     pushd %DIR% & %JAVA_EXEC% -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:server=y,transport=dt_socket,address=8000,suspend=n -p "%~dp0/../app" -m org.jabref/org.jabref.Launcher  %* & popd
  4. Open your IDE and add a “Remote Debugging Configuration” for localhost:8000
  5. Start JabRef by running the above .bat file
  6. Connect with your IDE using remote debugging