@@ -3,188 +3,19 @@
<title>.NET Tasks</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" >
<h1>.NET classes for Ant </h1>
<body>
<h1>.NET tasks </h1>
<h2>Vision</h2>
<p>
Make ant the definitive build tool for .NET projects, just
as it is becoming for java projects
</p>
<h2>Detail</h2>
<p>
The emergent policy in big java projects is 'IDE for code and debug';
Ant for builds, test and deployment. While IDEs are great for an
individual development task, Ant not only rebuilds everything insanely
fast, it has great support for modern deployment tasks -ftp upload,
EJB servers, SQL commands, all can be done from a relatively simple
XML declaration of what you want done. Also in a large project
(especially open source) there is no means of dictating which IDE to use.
Ant gives IDE independence, cross platform portability and ease of
extensibility. </p>
<p>
Projects using .net should be able to use the same tool. This will
avoid everyone being dependent on Visual Studio.net (if they have it)
supplemented with makefiles and batch files. Anyone doing mixed java/dotnet
development will be particulary grateful, as they can have a unified build
process. </p>
<p>
If at sometime in the future bits of .net do appear on different platforms
then ant based build files will migrate -once the ant tasks have been
migrated and any hard codings of DOS-descendant file system conventions
removed from the build.xml files.</p>
<h2>Key .net Tasks</h2>
<ol>
<li>csc - csharp compiler - *.csc -> output</li>
<li>ilasm - IL assembler - *.il ->.exe or .dll</li>
<li>ResX - ResXToResources.exe .resx -> .resources</li>
<li>al - assembly linker (.dll) -></li>
<li>Signcode - .exe + keys -> .exe</li>
<li>Resgen - .properties -> .resources</li>
<li>Type Library Exporter (TlbExp.exe) .dll -> .tlb</li>
<li>TlbImp.exe Type Library Importer </li>
<li>RegAsm.exe Assembly Registration Tool .dll -> .reg | registration</li>
</ol>
<h2>Ant Wrapper for net tasks</h2>
Rarely used .net command line tools can be invoked manually. The key tasks
to address are the common steps in a build process and those which benefit
from the file pattern matching function.
<p>
The esoteric tasks can then supported on demand by those who need them.
The initial .net tasks should provide a foundation for that demand creation
to be simple. </p>
<h2>Plan</h2>
<ol>
<li>code up C sharp task and distribute for feedback & identify possible
aid</li>
<li>Use for a real end to end development task</li>
<li>Add the next task I need (whatever that is)</li>
<li>Refactor to produce a base class for .net tasks</li>
<li>Leave it other people write all the other tasks</li>
</ol>
<h2>Risks</h2>
<ul>
<li>
The .net SDK is unstable; the next builds will change the commands, arguments
and behaviours. Probability: 100%. Impact: 2 days.</li>
<li>Portable tasks turn out to be harder than envisaged
(=reworking if/when non Win32 .net build tools appear)</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h2>Using Ant in .net projects</h2>
To use the net tasks one needs
<ul>
<li> A Windows box (or any other platform which supports the .net build tools)</li>
<li> JavaVM - Java1.1 or later; Java1.3 recommended.</li>
<li> Ant downloaded and the environment and path variables set up so
that typing 'ant' invokes ant via a batch file.</li>
<li> An XML parser for ant. The usual distributions include an appropriate
version crimson.jar and jaxp.jar.</li>
<li> the .net tasks archive (dotnettasks.jar) included in the
ant\lib directory</li>
<li> The .net sdk installed with the binaries on the path. (Test: type CSC)</li>
<li> A build.xml file to describe the build process</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h2> Change Log </h2>
<h4>Version 0.5</h4>
This revision goes along with NET 1.0 (SP1)
<ol>
<li>CSC: added filealign</li>
<li>CSC: added reference to office.dll</li>
</ol>
<h4>Version 0.4</h4>
This is the beta-2 revision of the tasks.
<ol>
<li>ILASM: pulled the owner attribute, added keyfile for giving binaries a strong name
(MD5 hash of the checksum)</li>
<li>CSC: added win32res , noConfig, utf8output, fullpaths</li>
<li>CSC: </li>
</ol>
<h4>Version 0.3</h4>
The changes here reflect Beta-1 of the dotnet SDK and experience of use in
more complex projects. This build does not work with the older SDK,
primarily because the automatic reference feature references libraries
only found in the new SDK version.
<p>
External changes</p>
<ul>
<li>Recursive inclusion of .cs and .il files</li>
<li>Documentation enhanced, includes examples and details of all parameters</li>
<li>The csc task automatically includes the common dotnet assemblies, so
there is no need to remember to refer to 'System.dll', 'System.Web.Services',
etc. This feature can be disabled by setting the 'includeDefaultReferences'
flag to false. </li>
<li> References can also be referred to using the ReferenceFiles parameter, which
is an ant path specification. The old 'references' string is still retained.</li>
<li> An 'extraoptions' attribute enables the build file to include any CSC options
which are not explicitly supported in the CSC task. </li>
</ul>
Internal changes
<ul>
<li>Some minor refactoring (move common code a method)</li>
<li>Application of Jedits JavaStyle task resulted in a major reshaping of
the codebase and the insertion of a blank line every second line. Significant
effort was required to revert some (but not all) changes.</li>
<li>Removed throws clause from methods which can't throw exceptions </li>
</ul>
The test harness has been expanded to include unicode source file
(the build works but the rest of the system has 'issues' with high unicode
package and method names)
<h4>Version 0.2</h4>
First public edition, added to the ant cvs tree. Tested on the PDC build of
the dotnet SDK only, and still immature. The command execution code was
refactored out into a 'NetCommand' class for re-use. The Ilasm task was added
at this time.
<h4>Version 0.1</h4>
Initial proof of concept; very rudimentary support for CSC only.
<hr>
<h2>Task: CSC</h2>
<h2><CSC></h2>
This task compiles CSharp source into executables or modules.
This task compiles CSharp source into executables or modules.
The task will only work on win2K until other platforms support csc.exe or
an equivalent. CSC.exe must be on the execute path too .
This task compiles CSharp source into executables or modules. The task will
only work on win2K/XP or other platforms with csc.exe or an equivalent.
CSC must be on the execute path.
<p>
All parameters are optional: <csc/> should suffice to produce a debug
@@ -193,13 +24,16 @@ enumeration, so are one of the first attributes to consider adding. </p>
<p>
The task is a directory based task, so attributes like <b>includes="**/*.cs"</b> and
<b>excludes="broken.cs"</b> can be used to control the files pulled in. By default,
The task is a directory based task, so attributes like
<b>includes="**/*.cs"</b> and
<b>excludes="broken.cs"</b> can be used to control
the files pulled in. By default,
all *.cs files from the project folder down are included in the command.
When this happens the output file -if not specified-
When this happens the destF ile -if not specified-
is taken as the first file in the list, which may be somewhat hard to control.
Specifying the output file with <b>'outfile'</b> seems prudent. </p>
Specifying the output file with <b>'destfile'</b> seems prudent. </p>
<p>
Also, dependency checking only works if destfile is set.
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
@@ -226,9 +60,14 @@ Specifying the output file with <b>'outfile'</b> seems prudent. </p>
<tr>
<td valign="top">debug</td>
<td valign="top">include debug information</td>
<td valign="top">"true"(default) or "false" </td>
<td valign="top">"true"(default)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">destFile</td>
<td valign="top">name of exe/library to create</td>
<td valign="top">"example.exe"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">docFile</td>
<td valign="top">name of file for documentation</td>
@@ -313,11 +152,6 @@ Specifying the output file with <b>'outfile'</b> seems prudent. </p>
<td valign="top">optimisation flag</td>
<td valign="top">"true" or "false"(default)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">outputFile</td>
<td valign="top">filename of output</td>
<td valign="top">"example.exe"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">references</td>
<td valign="top">Semicolon separated list of dlls to refer to</td>
@@ -383,11 +217,11 @@ Example
definitions="RELEASE"
excludes="src/unicode_class.cs"
mainClass = "MainApp"
outpu tFile="NetApp.exe"
des tFile="NetApp.exe"
/>
</pre>
<hr>
<h2> Task: ilasm </h2>
<h2><ilasm> </h2>
<p>Task to assemble .net 'Intermediate Language' files.
The task will only work on windows until other platforms support csc.exe or
an equivalent. ilasm.exe must be on the execute path too.
@@ -429,7 +263,7 @@ manually specified with <b>outfile</b>
<td valign="top">debug</td>
<td valign="top">include debug information</td>
<td valign="top">true (default)</td>
</tr>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">excludes</td>
@@ -449,16 +283,16 @@ manually specified with <b>outfile</b>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">failOnError</td>
<td valign="top">Should a failed compile halt the build?</td>
<td valign="top">"true"(default)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">failOnError</td>
<td valign="top">Should a failed compile halt the build?</td>
<td valign="top">"true"(default)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">fullpaths</td>
<td valign="top">Should error text provide the full path to files</td>
<td valign="top">"true"(default)</td>
</tr>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">includes</td>
<td valign="top">comma separated list of patterns of files that must be
@@ -517,7 +351,143 @@ Example</p>
owner="secret"
/>
</pre>
<h2><WsdlToDotnet></h2>
Why add a wrapper to the MS WSDL tool?
So that you can verify that your web services, be they written with Axis or
anyone else's SOAP toolkit, work with .NET clients.
<p>
This task is dependency aware when using a file as a source and destination;
so if you <get> the file (with <code>usetimestamp="true"</code>) then
you only rebuild stuff when the WSDL file is changed. Of course,
if the server generates a new timestamp every time you ask for the WSDL,
this is not enough...use the <filesmatch> <condition> to
to byte for byte comparison against a cached WSDL file then make
the target conditional on that test failing.
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
<td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
<td align="center" valign="top"><b>Example</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">destFile</td>
<td valign="top">name of file to generate. Required</td>
<td valign="top">ApacheNet.cs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">srcFile</td>
<td valign="top">name of WSDL file to use.
Required if url is not set</td>
<td valign="top">service.wsdl</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">url</td>
<td valign="top">url to retrive WSDL from.
required if srcFile is unset</td>
<td valign="top">http://localhost/service?wsdl</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">server</td>
<td valign="top">generate server stubs, not client proxy code.
optional; default false</td>
<td valign="top">"false"(default)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">namespace</td>
<td valign="top">namespace to place the source in.
optional; default ""</td>
<td valign="top">Apache.Net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">language</td>
<td valign="top">language; one of "CS", "JS", or "VB"
optional; </td>
<td valign="top"> "CS" (default)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">failOnError</td>
<td valign="top">Should failure halt the build?</td>
<td valign="top">"true"(default)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">extraOptions</td>
<td valign="top">Any extra options which aren't explicitly
supported by the task, like all the proxy server config stuff</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>
<hr>
<hr>
<h2> Change Log </h2>
<h4>Version 0.5</h4>
This revision goes along with NET 1.0 (SP1)
<ol>
<li>CSC: added filealign</li>
<li>CSC: added reference to office.dll</li>
<li>CSC: dependency checking! only if destFile is set!
<li>WsdlToDotnet written
</ol>
<h4>Version 0.4</h4>
This is the beta-2 revision of the tasks.
<ol>
<li>ILASM: pulled the owner attribute, added keyfile for giving binaries a strong name
(MD5 hash of the checksum)</li>
<li>CSC: added win32res , noConfig, utf8output, fullpaths</li>
<li>CSC: </li>
</ol>
<h4>Version 0.3</h4>
The changes here reflect Beta-1 of the dotnet SDK and experience of use in
more complex projects. This build does not work with the older SDK,
primarily because the automatic reference feature references libraries
only found in the new SDK version.
<p>
External changes</p>
<ul>
<li>Recursive inclusion of .cs and .il files</li>
<li>Documentation enhanced, includes examples and details of all parameters</li>
<li>The csc task automatically includes the common dotnet assemblies, so
there is no need to remember to refer to 'System.dll', 'System.Web.Services',
etc. This feature can be disabled by setting the 'includeDefaultReferences'
flag to false. </li>
<li> References can also be referred to using the ReferenceFiles parameter, which
is an ant path specification. The old 'references' string is still retained.</li>
<li> An 'extraoptions' attribute enables the build file to include any CSC options
which are not explicitly supported in the CSC task. </li>
</ul>
Internal changes
<ul>
<li>Some minor refactoring (move common code a method)</li>
<li>Application of Jedits JavaStyle task resulted in a major reshaping of
the codebase and the insertion of a blank line every second line. Significant
effort was required to revert some (but not all) changes.</li>
<li>Removed throws clause from methods which can't throw exceptions </li>
</ul>
The test harness has been expanded to include unicode source file
(the build works but the rest of the system has 'issues' with high unicode
package and method names)
<h4>Version 0.2</h4>
First public edition, added to the ant cvs tree. Tested on the PDC build of
the dotnet SDK only, and still immature. The command execution code was
refactored out into a 'NetCommand' class for re-use. The Ilasm task was added
at this time.
<h4>Version 0.1</h4>
Initial proof of concept; very rudimentary support for CSC only.
<p align="center">Copyright © 2000-2002 Apache Software Foundation. All rights
Reserved.</p>
Steve Loughran