Apache Ant Documentation

Some dependencies required by Ant are not available in the central Maven repository. To install these manually into your local Maven cache, use the mvn install:install-file command with the following syntax:

mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=foo.org -DartifactId=xx -Dversion=x.y -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=/a/b/foo.jar

If you wish to bypass the execution of unit tests during the Maven build process, use the -Dmaven.test.skip=true flag. This is useful if you encounter issues with the maven-surefire-plugin or simply want a faster build.

mvn install -Dmaven.test.skip=true

You can build Ant JARs using Maven by utilizing the POMS located in the src/etc/poms directory.

To perform a build, navigate to this directory and run:

mvn install

Alternatively, you can use mvn package if you only need to package the artifacts without installing them to your local repository.

Handling Missing Dependencies: If you are missing specific dependencies required for the build, you can modify the pom.xml in this directory to remove the modules you are unable to build.

Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool designed for cross-platform portability. Unlike shell-based tools like make, Ant uses an XML-based configuration model to define a target tree.

Instead of executing shell commands directly, Ant executes tasks. Each task is implemented by a Java object that implements a specific Task interface. This approach ensures that build logic remains portable across different operating systems. If platform-specific shell commands are required, Ant provides an exec rule that can execute different commands based on the host OS.

By default, Ant looks for build.xml in the current directory. You can override this using the -buildfile, -file, or -f flag.

ant -f custom-build.xml

You can define properties directly on the command line using the -D flag. This is useful for passing environment-specific variables into your build script.

Syntax Patterns:

1. -Dname=value
2. -Dname value (if the OS splits the arguments)

ant -Dbuild.dir=/tmp/build -Dversion=1.0.0

The following libraries are required for the build but are not available in the standard Maven repository. They must be fetched or installed manually:

You can programmatically retrieve the Ant version information using the Main class.

• getAntVersion(): Returns the full version string, including the compilation date (e.g., Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.17 compiled on ...).
• getShortAntVersion(): Returns only the short version number (e.g., 1.10.17).

Both methods throw a BuildException if the version information cannot be loaded.

String fullVersion = org.apache.tools.ant.Main.getAntVersion();
String shortVersion = org.apache.tools.ant.Main.getShortAntVersion();

To execute an Ant build from within another Java application, use the start method. This method handles argument parsing, property setup, and project execution.

Parameters:

• args: Command line arguments (e.g., ["-f", "build.xml", "compile"]).
• additionalUserProperties: A Properties object containing extra properties to be used in the build. If null, no extra properties are added.
• coreLoader: A ClassLoader used for core classes. If null, the system classloader is used.

Properties props = new Properties();
props.setProperty("my.prop", "value");
String[] args = {"-f", "build.xml", "deploy"};

org.apache.tools.ant.Main.start(args, props, null);

The org.apache.tools.ant.Main class is the standard command-line entry point for Ant. It parses command-line arguments, assembles the project, and executes the specified targets.

If you are integrating Ant into another tool, do not use this class as your entry point. Instead, examine its source code to understand how it manipulates Ant project classes.

// Standard CLI usage (from terminal):
ant -buildfile my-build.xml my-target

// Programmatic usage via the start method:
org.apache.tools.ant.Main.start(args, additionalUserProperties, coreLoader);