<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"> <title>Ant User Manual</title> </head> <body> <h2><a name="ant">Ant</a></h2> <h3>Description</h3> <p>Runs Ant on a supplied buildfile. This can be used to build subprojects.</p> <p>When the <i>antfile</i> attribute is omitted, the file "build.xml" in the supplied directory (<i>dir</i> attribute) is used.</p> <p>If no target attribute is supplied, the default target of the new project is used.</p> <p>By default, all of the properties of the current project will be available in the new project. Alternatively, you can set the <i>inheritAll</i> attribute to <code>false</code> and only "user" properties (i.e., those passed on the command-line) will be passed to the new project. In either case, the set of properties passed to the new project will override the properties that are set in the new project (See also the <a href="property.html">property task</a>).</p> <p>You can also set properties in the new project from the old project by using nested property tags. These properties are always passed regardless of the setting of <i>inheritAll</i>. This allows you to parameterize your subprojects.</p> <h3>Parameters</h3> <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>Required</b></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top">antfile</td> <td valign="top">the buildfile to use. Defaults to "build.xml".</td> <td valign="top" align="center">No</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top">dir</td> <td valign="top">the directory to use as a basedir for the new Ant project. Defaults to the current directory.</td> <td valign="top" align="center">No</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top">target</td> <td valign="top">the target of the new Ant project that should be executed.</td> <td valign="top" align="center">No</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top">output</td> <td valign="top">Filename to write the ant output to. </td> <td align="center" valign="top">No</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top">inheritAll</td> <td valign="top">If <code>true</code>, pass all properties to the new Ant project. Defaults to <code>true</code>. </td> <td align="center" valign="top">No</td> </tr> </table> <h3>Examples</h3> <pre> <ant antfile="subproject/subbuild.xml" dir="subproject" target="compile"/> <ant dir="subproject"/> <ant antfile="subproject/property_based_subbuild.xml"> <property name="param1" value="version 1.x"/> <property file="config/subproject/default.properties"/> </ant> <ant inheritAll="false" antfile="subproject/subbuild.xml"> <property name="output.type" value="html"/> </ant> </pre> <hr> <p align="center">Copyright © 2000,2001 Apache Software Foundation. All rights Reserved.</p> </body> </html>