There is jpackage and jlink, which don't do single files but make single directory apps.
These days there's also GraalVM native image which does produce Go-like results. But with everyone using Docker on the server anyway it doesn't matter anymore. People who talk about single binaries are confusing to me. What are you doing where shipping one file is so much simpler than shipping a container?
> What are you doing where shipping one file is so much simpler than shipping a container?
Desktop applications.
Java would be a more popular desktop application platform if it weren't for the difficulty in this area (which, to be fair, isn't the only difficulty - cross platform is difficult inherently).
it's pretty hard for average Joe to install a docker engine before he can pull and run dockers, plus docker is not that great for cross platform desktop GUIs.
These days there's also GraalVM native image which does produce Go-like results. But with everyone using Docker on the server anyway it doesn't matter anymore. People who talk about single binaries are confusing to me. What are you doing where shipping one file is so much simpler than shipping a container?