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ant

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<h1>Running Ant</h1>
<h2><a name="commandline">Command Line</a></h2>
<p> If you've installed Ant as described in the
<a href="install.html"> Installing Ant</a> section,
running Ant from the command-line is simple: just type
<code>ant</code>.</p>
<p>When no arguments are specified, Ant looks for a <code>build.xml</code>
file in the current directory and, if found, uses that file as the
build file and runs the target specified in the <code>default</code>
attribute of the <code>&lt;project&gt;</code> tag.
To make Ant use
a build file other than <code>build.xml</code>, use the command-line
option <nobr><code>-buildfile <i>file</i></code></nobr>,
where <i>file</i> is the name of the build file you want to use.</p>
If you use the <nobr><code>-find [<i>file</i>]</code></nobr> option,
Ant will search for a build file first in the current directory, then in
the parent directory, and so on, until either a build file is found or the root
of the filesystem has been reached. By default, it will look for a build file
called <code>build.xml</code>. To have it search for a build file other
than <code>build.xml</code>, specify a file argument.
<strong>Note:</strong> If you include any other flags or arguments
on the command line after
the <nobr><code>-find</code></nobr> flag, you must include the file argument
for the <nobr><code>-find</code></nobr> flag, even if the name of the
build file you want to find is <code>build.xml</code>.

<p>You can also set <a href="using.html#properties">properties</a> on the
command line.  This can be done with
the <nobr><code>-D<i>property</i>=<i>value</i></code></nobr> option,
where <i>property</i> is the name of the property,
and <i>value</i> is the value for that property. If you specify a
property that is also set in the build file
(see the <a href="CoreTasks/property.html">property</a> task),
the value specified on the
command line will override the value specified in the
build file.
Defining properties on the command line can also be used to pass in
the value of environment variables - just pass
<nobr><code>-DMYVAR=%MYVAR%</code></nobr> (Windows) or
<nobr><code>-DMYVAR=$MYVAR</code></nobr> (Unix)
to Ant. You can then access
these variables inside your build file as <code>${MYVAR}</code>.
You can also access environment variables using the
<a href="CoreTasks/property.html"> property</a> task's
<code>environment</code> attribute.
</p>

<p>Options that affect the amount of logging output by Ant are:
<nobr><code>-quiet</code></nobr>,
which instructs Ant to print less
information to the console;
<nobr><code>-verbose</code></nobr>, which causes Ant to print
additional information to the console; and <nobr><code>-debug</code></nobr>,
which causes Ant to print considerably more additional information.
</p>

<p>It is also possible to specify one or more targets that should be executed.
When omitted, the target that is specified in the
<code>default</code> attribute of the
<a href="using.html#projects"><code>project</code></a> tag is
used.</p>

<p>The <nobr><code>-projecthelp</code></nobr> option prints out a list
of the build file's targets. Targets that include a
<code>description</code> attribute are listed as &quot;Main targets&quot;,
those without a <code>description</code> are listed as
&quot;Subtargets&quot;, then the &quot;Default&quot; target is listed.

<h3><a name="options">Command-line Options Summary</a></h3>
<pre>ant [options] [target [target2 [target3] ...]]
Options:
  -help, -h              print this message
  -projecthelp, -p       print project help information
  -version               print the version information and exit
  -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 &lt;path&gt;            specifies a path to search for jars and classes
  -logfile &lt;file&gt;        use given file for log
    -l     &lt;file&gt;                ''
  -logger &lt;classname&gt;    the class which is to perform logging
  -listener &lt;classname&gt;  add an instance of class as a project listener
  -noinput               do not allow interactive input
  -buildfile &lt;file&gt;      use given buildfile
    -file    &lt;file&gt;              ''
    -f       &lt;file&gt;              ''
  -D&lt;property&gt;=&lt;value&gt;   use value for given property
  -keep-going, -k        execute all targets that do not depend
                         on failed target(s)
  -propertyfile &lt;name&gt;   load all properties from file with -D
                         properties taking precedence
  -inputhandler &lt;class&gt;  the class which will handle input requests
  -find &lt;file&gt;           (s)earch for buildfile towards the root of
    -s  &lt;file&gt;           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                         
</pre>
<p>For more information about <code>-logger</code> and
<code>-listener</code> see
<a href="listeners.html">Loggers &amp; Listeners</a>.
<p>For more information about <code>-inputhandler</code> see
<a href="inputhandler.html">InputHandler</a>.

<h3><a name="libs">Library Directories</a></h3>
<p>
Prior to Ant 1.6, all jars in the ANT_HOME/lib would be added to the CLASSPATH
used to run Ant. This was done in the scripts that started Ant. From Ant 1.6,
two directories are scanned by default and more can be added as required. The
default directories scanned are ANT_HOME/lib and a user specific directory,
${user.home}/.ant/lib. This arrangement allows the Ant installation to be
shared by many users while still allowing each user to deploy additional jars.
Such additional jars could be support jars for Ant's optional tasks or jars
containing third-party tasks to be used in the build. It also allows the main Ant installation to be locked down which will please system adminstrators.
</p>

<p>
Additional directories to be searched may be added by using the -lib option.
The -lib option specifies a search path. Any jars or classes in the directories
of the path will be added to Ant's classloader. The order in which jars are
added to the classpath is as follows:-
</p>

<ul>
  <li>-lib jars in the order specified by the -lib elements on the command line</li>
  <li>jars from ${user.home}/.ant/lib (unless -nouserlib is set)</li>
  <li>jars from ANT_HOME/lib</li>
</ul>

<p>
Note that the CLASSPATH environment variable is passed to Ant using a -lib
option. Ant itself is started with a very minimalistic classpath. 
Ant should work perfectly well with an empty CLASSPATH environment variable,
something the the -noclasspath option actually enforces. We get many more support calls related to classpath problems (especially quoting problems), than
we like.

</p>

<p>
The location of ${user.home}/.ant/lib is somewhat dependent on the JVM. On Unix
systems ${user.home} maps to the user's home directory whilst on recent
versions of Windows it will be somewhere such as
C:\Documents&nbsp;and&nbsp;Settings\username\.ant\lib. You should consult your
JVM documentation for more details.
</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>
<blockquote>
  <pre>ant</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>runs Ant using the <code>build.xml</code> file in the current directory, on
the default target.</p>
<blockquote>
  <pre>ant -buildfile test.xml</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>runs Ant using the <code>test.xml</code> file in the current directory, on
the default target.</p>
<blockquote>
  <pre>ant -buildfile test.xml dist</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>runs Ant using the <code>test.xml</code> file in the current directory, on
the target called <code>dist</code>.</p>
<blockquote>
  <pre>ant -buildfile test.xml -Dbuild=build/classes dist</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>runs Ant using the <code>test.xml</code> file in the current directory, on
the target called <code>dist</code>, setting the <code>build</code> property
to the value <code>build/classes</code>.</p>

<blockquote>
  <pre>ant -lib /home/ant/extras</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>runs Ant picking up additional task and support jars from the
/home/ant/extras location
</p>

<h3><a name="files">Files</a></h3>

<p>The Ant wrapper script for Unix will source (read and evaluate) the
file <code>~/.antrc</code> before it does anything. On Windows, the Ant
wrapper batch-file invokes <code>%HOME%\antrc_pre.bat</code> at the start and
<code>%HOME%\antrc_post.bat</code> at the end.  You can use these
files, for example, to set/unset environment variables that should only be
visible during the execution of Ant.  See the next section for examples.</p>

<h3><a name="envvars">Environment Variables</a></h3>

<p>The wrapper scripts use the following environment variables (if
set):</p>

<ul>
  <li><code>JAVACMD</code> - full path of the Java executable.  Use this
  to invoke a different JVM than <code>JAVA_HOME/bin/java(.exe)</code>.</li>

  <li><code>ANT_OPTS</code> - command-line arguments that should be
  passed to the JVM. For example, you can define system properties or set
  the maximum Java heap size here.</li>

  <li><code>ANT_ARGS</code> - Ant command-line arguments. For example,
  set <code>ANT_ARGS</code> to point to a different logger, include a
  listener, and to include the <code>-find</code> flag.</li>
  <strong>Note:</strong> If you include <code>-find</code>
  in <code>ANT_ARGS</code>, you should include the name of the build file
  to find, even if the file is called <code>build.xml</code>.
</ul>

<h3><a name="sysprops">Java System Properties</a></h3>
<p>Some of Ant's core classes ant tasks can be configured via system properties.</p>
<p>Here is the result of a search through the codebase. Because system properties are
available via Project instance, I searched for them with a
<pre>
    grep -r -n "getPropert" * &gt; ..\grep.txt
</pre>
command. After that I filtered out the often-used but not-so-important values (most of them
read-only values): <i>path.separator, ant.home, basedir, user.dir, os.name, 
line.separator, java.home, java.version, java.version, user.home, java.class.path</i><br>
And I filtered out the <i>getPropertyHelper</i> access.</p>
<table border="1">
<tr>
  <th>property name</th>
  <th>valid values /default value</th>
  <th>description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.executor.class</code></td>
  <td>classname; default is org. apache. tools. ant. helper. DefaultExecutor</td>
  <td><b>Since Ant 1.6.3</b> Ant will delegate Target invocation to the
org.apache.tools.ant.Executor implementation specified here.
  </td>
</tr>

<tr>
  <td><code>ant.file</code></td>
  <td>read only: full filename of the build file</td>
  <td>This is set to the name of the build file. In
  <a href="CoreTasks/import.html">
  &lt;import&gt;-ed</a> files, this is set to the containing build file.
  </td>
</tr>

<tr>
  <td><code>ant.file.*</code></td>
  <td>read only: full filename of the build file of Ant projects
  </td>
  <td>This is set to the name of a file by project;  
  this lets you determine the location of <a href="CoreTasks/import.html">
  &lt;import&gt;-ed</a> files,  
  </td>
</tr>

<tr>
  <td><code>ant.input.properties</code></td>
  <td>filename (required)</td>
  <td>Name of the file holding the values for the
      <a href="inputhandler.html">PropertyFileInputHandler</a>.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.logger.defaults</code></td>
  <!-- add the blank after the slash, so the browser can do a line break -->
  <td>filename (optional, default '/org/ apache/ tools/ ant/ listener/ defaults.properties')</td>
  <td>Name of the file holding the color mappings for the
      <a href="listeners.html#AnsiColorLogger">AnsiColorLogger</a>.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.maven.repository.dir</code></td>
  <td>directory e.g. ${user.home}/.maven/repository </td>
  <td>Override the default download location for <a href="CoreTasks/libraries.html">libraries</a>.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.maven.repository.url</code></td>
  <td>URL e.g. <code>http://ibiblio.org/maven</code> </td>
  <td>Override the default source location for <a href="CoreTasks/libraries.html">libraries</a>.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.netrexxc.*</code></td>
  <td>several formats</td>
  <td>Use specified values as defaults for <a href="OptionalTasks/netrexxc.html">netrexxc</a>.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.PropertyHelper</code></td>
  <td>ant-reference-name (optional)</td>
  <td>Specify the PropertyHelper to use. The object must be of the type
      org.apache.tools.ant.PropertyHelper. If not defined an object of
      org.apache.tools.ant.PropertyHelper will be used as PropertyHelper.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.regexp.regexpimpl</code></td>
  <td>classname</td>
  <td>classname for a RegExp implementation; if not set Ant tries to
      find another (JDK14+, Apache Oro...);
      <a href="CoreTypes/mapper.html#regexp-mapper">RegExp-Mapper</a>
      "Choice of regular expression implementation"
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.reuse.loader</code></td>
  <td>boolean</td>
  <td>allow to reuse classloaders
      used in org.apache.tools.ant.util.ClasspathUtil
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>ant.XmlLogger.stylesheet.uri</code></td>
  <td>filename (default 'log.xsl')</td>
  <td>Name for the stylesheet to include in the logfile by
      <a href="listeners.html#XmlLogger">XmlLogger</a>.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>build.compiler</code></td>
  <td>name</td>
  <td>Specify the default compiler to use.
      see <a href="CoreTasks/javac.html">javac</a>,
      <a href="OptionalTasks/ejb.html#ejbjar_weblogic">EJB Tasks</a>
      (compiler attribute),
      <a href="OptionalTasks/icontract.html">IContract</a>,
      <a href="OptionalTasks/javah.html">javah</a>
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>build.compiler.emacs</code></td>
  <td>boolean (default false)</td>
  <td>Enable emacs-compatible error messages.
      see <a href="CoreTasks/javac.html">javac</a> "Jikes Notes"
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>build.compiler.fulldepend</code></td>
  <td>boolean (default false)</td>
  <td>Enable full dependency checking
      see <a href="CoreTasks/javac.html">javac</a> "Jikes Notes"
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>build.compiler.jvc.extensions</code></td>
  <td>boolean (default true)</td>
  <td>enable Microsoft extensions of their java compiler
      see <a href="CoreTasks/javac.html">javac</a> "Jvc Notes"
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>build.compiler.pedantic</code></td>
  <td>boolean (default false)</td>
  <td>Enable pedantic warnings.
      see <a href="CoreTasks/javac.html">javac</a> "Jikes Notes"
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>build.compiler.warnings</code></td>
  <td>Deprecated flag</td>
  <td> see <a href="CoreTasks/javac.html">javac</a> "Jikes Notes" </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>build.rmic</code></td>
  <td>name</td>
  <td>control the <a href="CoreTasks/rmic.html">rmic</a> compiler </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>build.sysclasspath</code></td>
  <td>"only", something else</td>
  <td>only: current threads get the actual class loader
      (AntClassLoader.setThreadContextLoader()).
      else: use core loader as default (ComponentHelper.initTasks()). Disable
      changing the classloader (oata.taskdefs.Classloader.execute() experimental
      task).
      <!-- somewhere documented in the manual?? -->
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>file.encoding</code></td>
  <td>name of a supported character set (e.g. UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, US-ASCII)</td>
  <td>use as default character set of email messages; use as default for source-, dest- and bundleencoding
      in <a href="OptionalTasks/translate.html">translate</a> <br>
      see JavaDoc of <a target="_blank" href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/nio/charset/Charset.html">java.nio.charset.Charset</a>
      for more information about character sets (not used in Ant, but has nice docs).
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>jikes.class.path</code></td>
  <td>path</td>
  <td>The specified path is added to the classpath if jikes is used as compiler.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>MailLogger.properties.file, MailLogger.*</code></td>
  <td>filename (optional, defaults derived from Project instance)</td>
  <td>Name of the file holding properties for sending emails by the
      <a href="listeners.html#MailLogger">MailLogger</a>. Override properties set
      inside the buildfile or via command line.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper</code></td>
  <!-- add the blank after the slash, so the browser can do a line break -->
  <td>classname (optional, default 'org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper')</td>
  <td>specifies the classname to use as ProjectHelper. The class must extend
      org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>p4.port, p4.client, p4.user</code></td>
  <td>several formats</td>
  <td>Specify defaults for port-, client- and user-setting of the
      <a href="OptionalTasks/perforce.html">perforce</a> tasks.
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>websphere.home
  <td>path</td>
  <td>Points to home directory of websphere.
      see <a href="OptionalTasks/ejb.html#ejbjar_websphere">EJB Tasks</a>
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><code>XmlLogger.file
  <td>filename (default 'log.xml')</td>
  <td>Name for the logfile for <a href="listeners.html#MailLogger">MailLogger</a>.
  </td>
</tr>
</table>

<p>
If new properties get added (it happens), expect them to appear under the
"ant." and "org.apache.tools.ant" prefixes, unless the developers have a 
very good reason to use another prefix. Accordingly, please avoid using 
properties that begin with these prefixes, to reduce the risk that future
Ant releases break your build file.
</p>


<h2><a name="cygwin">Cygwin Users</a></h2>
<p>The Unix launch script that come with Ant works correctly with Cygwin. You
should not have any problems launching Ant form the Cygwin shell. It is important
to note however, that once Ant is runing it is part of the JDK which operates as
a native Windows application. The JDK is not a Cygwin executable, and it therefore
has no knowledge of the Cygwin paths, etc. In particular when using the <code>&lt;exec&gt;</code>
task, executable names such as &quot;/bin/sh&quot; will not work, even though these
work from the Cygwin shell from which Ant was launched. You can use an executable
name such as &quot;sh&quot; and rely on that command being available in the Windows
path.
</p>

<h2><a name="os2">OS/2 Users</a></h2>
<p>The OS/2 launch script was developed so as it can perform complex tasks. It has two parts:
<code>ant.cmd</code> which calls Ant and <code>antenv.cmd</code> which sets environment for Ant.
Most often you will just call <code>ant.cmd</code> using the same command line options as described
above. The behaviour can be modified by a number of ways explained below.</p>

<p>Script <code>ant.cmd</code> first verifies whether the Ant environment is set correctly. The
requirements are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Environment variable <code>JAVA_HOME</code> is set.</li>
<li>Environment variable <code>ANT_HOME</code> is set.</li>
<li>environment variable <code>CLASSPATH</code> is set and contains at least one element from
<code>JAVA_HOME</code> and at least one element from <code>ANT_HOME</code>.</li>
</ol>

<p>If any of these conditions is violated, script <code>antenv.cmd</code> is called. This script
first invokes configuration scripts if there exist: the system-wide configuration
<code>antconf.cmd</code> from the <code>%ETC%</code> directory and then the user comfiguration
<code>antrc.cmd</code> from the <code>%HOME%</code> directory. At this moment both
<code>JAVA_HOME</code> and <code>ANT_HOME</code> must be defined because <code>antenv.cmd</code>
now adds <code>classes.zip</code> or <code>tools.jar</code> (depending on version of JVM) and
everything from <code>%ANT_HOME%\lib</code> except <code>ant-*.jar</code> to
<code>CLASSPATH</code>. Finally <code>ant.cmd</code> calls per-directory configuration
<code>antrc.cmd</code>. All settings made by <code>ant.cmd</code> are local and are undone when the
script ends. The settings made by <code>antenv.cmd</code> are persistent during the lifetime of the
shell (of course unless called automaticaly from <code>ant.cmd</code>). It is thus possible to call
<code>antenv.cmd</code> manually and modify some settings before calling <code>ant.cmd</code>.</p>

<p>Scripts <code>envset.cmd</code> and <code>runrc.cmd</code> perform auxilliary tasks. All scripts
have some documentation inside.</p>

<h2><a name="viajava">Running Ant via Java</a></h2>
<p>If you have installed Ant in the do-it-yourself way, Ant can be started
with two entry points:</p>
<blockquote>
  <pre>java -Dant.home=c:\ant org.apache.tools.ant.Main [options] [target]</pre>
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
  <pre>java -Dant.home=c:\ant org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher [options] [target]</pre>
</blockquote>

<p>
The first method runs Ant's traditional entry point. The second method uses
the Ant Launcher introduced in Ant 1.6. The former method does not support
the -lib option and all required classes are loaded from the CLASSPATH. You must
ensure that all required jars are available. At a minimum the CLASSPATH should
include:
</p>

<ul>
<li><code>ant.jar</code> and <code>ant-launcher.jar</code></li>
<li>jars/classes for your XML parser</li>
<li>the JDK's required jar/zip files</li>
</ul>

<p>
The latter method supports the -lib option and will load jars from the
specified ANT_HOME. You should start the latter with the most minimal
classpath possible, generally just the ant-launcher.jar.
</p>

<br>
<hr>
<p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2000-2005 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights
Reserved.</p>

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