ant(1) General Commands Manual ant(1)
NAME
ant - a Java based make tool.
SYNOPSIS
ant [OPTIONS] [TARGET [TARGET2 [TARGET3] ...]]
DESCRIPTION
Like make ant is a tool by which projects can be build. But unlike it, ant is based on Java which means it will run on every platform for
which a Java Virtual Machine is available. This makes it a great tool for building Java software.
By default it takes information from build.xml which describes the targets.
-help, -h
print help on the command line options
-projecthelp, -p
print project help information
-version
print the version information
-diagnostics
print information that might be helpful to diagnose or report problems
-quiet, -q
be extra quiet
-verbose, -v
be extra verbose
-debug, -d
print debugging information
-emacs, -e
produce logging information without adornments
-lib <path>
specifies a path to search for jars and classes
-logfile <file>
use the given file to output log to
-logger <classname>
use the given class to perform logging
-listener <classname>
add an instance of the given class as a project listener
-noinput
do not allow interactive input
-buildfile, -file, -f <file>
use the given buildfile instead of the default build.xml file. This is the ant equivalent of Makefile
-D<property>=<value>
use value for the given property
-keep-going, -k
execute all targets that do not depend on failed target(s)
-propertyfile <name>
load all properties from file with -D properties taking precedence
-inputhandler <class>
the class which will handle input requests
-find, -s <file>
search for buildfile towards the root of the filesystem and use it
-nice <number>
A niceness value for the main thread: 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest); 5 is the default
-nouserlib
Run ant without using the jar files from ${user.home}/.ant/lib
-noclasspath
Run ant without using CLASSPATH
-autoproxy
Java 1.5+ : use the OS proxies
-main <class>
Override Ant's normal entry point
SEE ALSO
make(1) mvn(1)
AUTHOR
This manpage is written by Egon Willighagen <egonw@sci.kun.nl>
Debian GNU/Linux Feb 2010 ant(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
build.xml(5) File Formats Manual build.xml(5)
NAME
build.xml - configuration file used by ant to build projects
DESCRIPTION
The file build.xml is the default configuration file used by ant to determine target to build for a specific project. It can be considered
the ant equivalent of Makefile..
The format of ant is XML and for each project a seperate file is constructed. The buildfile consists of one or more tasks. An example is
given below.
<project default="compile">
<target name="compile">
<javac srcdir="src">
</target>
</project>
This example has one target and it is defaulted. The target itself consists of one task javac which compiles the files in the src direc-
tory.
TARGETS
Targets can depend on other targets. These dependencies are given by the depends attribute of the <target> element.
TASKS
A task is a piece of code that is executed. Ant recognizes built-in task, optional tasks, but one can also write new tasks.
Built-in tasks
The built-in tasks are: Ant, AntCall, AntStructure, Apply, Available, Chmod, Copy, Cvs, Delete, Deltree, Echo, Exec, ExecOn, Fail, Filter,
FixCRLF, GenKey, Get, GUnzip, GZip, Jar, Java, Javac, Javadoc/Javadoc2, Mail, Mkdir, Move, Patch, Property, Replace, Rmic, SignJar, Sql,
Style, Tar, Taskdef, Touch, TStamp, Unjar, Untar, Unwar, Unzip, Uptodate, War, Zip
Java Executes a Java class within the running (Ant) VM or forks another VM if specified. Below are some of the attibutes to the <java>
element:
classname (required) the Java class to execute
fork if enabled triggers the class execution in another VM (disabled by default)
jvm the command used to invoke the Java Virtual Machine, default is java. The command is resolved by java.lang.Runtime.exec().
Ignored if fork is disabled.
Other arguments are classpath, classpathref, maxmemory, failonerror, dir and output.
Javac Compiles a source tree within the running (Ant) VM.
srcdir (required) location of the java files
destdir location to store the class files
debug indicates whether source should be compiled with debug information; defaults to off
optimize indicates whether source should be compiled with optimization; defaults to off
target generate class files for specific VM version (e.g., 1.1 or 1.2).
includes comma-separated list of patterns of files that must be included; all files are included when omitted
excludes comma-separated list of patterns of files that must be excluded; no files (except default excludes) are excluded when omit-
ted.
defaultexcludes indicates whether default excludes should be used (yes | no); default excludes are used when omitted.
Other arguments are includesfile, excludesfile, classpath, bootclasspath, classpathref, bootclasspathref, extdirs, encoding, depre-
cation, verbose, includeAntRuntime, includeJavaRuntime and failonerror.
Properties
A project can have a set of properties, which consist of a name value combination. Within tasks they can be used by placing them between
"${" and "}", as in "${builddir}/classes".
Built-in Properties
Ant provides access to all system properties as if they had been defined using a <property> task. For example, ${os.name} expands to the
name of the operating system.
basedir
the absolute path of the project's basedir (as set with the basedir attribute of <project>).
ant.file
the absolute path of the buildfile.
ant.project.name
the name of the project that is currently executing; it is set in the name attribute of <project>.
ant.java.version
the JVM version Ant detected; currently it can hold the values "1.1", "1.2" and "1.3".
Classpath
The classpath can be set by using the <classpath> element:
<classpath>
<pathelement path="${classpath}"/>
<pathelement location="lib/helper.jar"/>
<fileset dir="lib">
<include name="**/*.jar"/>
</fileset> </classpath>
SEE ALSO
ant(1)
AUTHOR
This manpage is made by Egon Willighagen <egonw@sci.kun.nl> and based on the Ant Manual <http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/manual/>.
Mac OS X September 22, 2004 build.xml(5)