Solution to: "Unbound classpath container: JRE System Library [JavaSE-11] in project" in VSCode

2020-02-29

I’m working on Java / VS Code project and was getting this error:

"Unbound classpath container: 'JRE System Library [JavaSE-11]' in project"

I’m new to Java and pom.xml files, so it took me a while to figure this out. Ultimately, I used the VS Code Maven extension to generate a new Maven project with the maven-archetype-quickstart template to see what a proper pom.xml file looks like and it generated this:

You should be able to copy the properties and build sections to your project to resolve the above issue. LMK if it works for you.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>com.jongallant</groupId>
  <artifactId>azgov-java</artifactId>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <name>azgov-java</name>
  <!-- FIXME change it to the project's website -->
  <url>http://www.example.com</url>

  <properties>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>
  </properties>

  <dependencies>

     <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.11</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <pluginManagement><!-- lock down plugins versions to avoid using Maven defaults (may be moved to parent pom) -->
      <plugins>
        <!-- clean lifecycle, see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/lifecycles.html#clean_Lifecycle -->
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.1.0</version>
        </plugin>
        <!-- default lifecycle, jar packaging: see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/default-bindings.html#Plugin_bindings_for_jar_packaging -->
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.0.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.8.0</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.22.1</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.0.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.5.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.8.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <!-- site lifecycle, see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/lifecycles.html#site_Lifecycle -->
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.7.1</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.0.0</version>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </pluginManagement>
  </build>
</project>

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