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<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheets/style.css">
<title>Running Apache Ant</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Running Apache Ant</h1>
<h2><a name="commandline">Command Line</a></h2>
<p> If you've installed Apache 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><project></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
(or a directory containing a <code>build.xml</code> file).</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="Tasks/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="Tasks/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; <nobr><code>-debug</code></nobr>,
which causes Ant to print considerably more additional information; and
<nobr><code>-silent</code></nobr> which makes Ant print nothing but task
output and build failures (useful to capture Ant output by scripts).
</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 "Main targets",
those without a <code>description</code> are listed as
"Other targets", then the "Default" target is listed
("Other targets" are only displayed if there are no main
targets, or if Ant is invoked in -verbose or -debug mode).
<h3><a name="options">Command-line Options Summary</a></h3>
<pre>ant [options] [target [target2 [target3] ...]]
Options:
-help, -h print this message and exit
-projecthelp, -p print project help information and exit
-version print the version information and exit
-diagnostics print information that might be helpful to
diagnose or report problems and exit
-quiet, -q be extra quiet
-silent, -S print nothing but task outputs and build failures
-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 given file for log
-l <file> ''
-logger <classname> the class which is to perform logging
-listener <classname> add an instance of class as a project listener
-noinput do not allow interactive input
-buildfile <file> use given buildfile
-file <file> ''
-f <file> ''
-D<property>=<value> use value for 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 <file> (s)earch for buildfile towards the root of
-s <file> 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
</pre>
<p>For more information about <code>-logger</code> and
<code>-listener</code> see
<a href="listeners.html">Loggers & Listeners</a>.
<p>For more information about <code>-inputhandler</code> see
<a href="inputhandler.html">InputHandler</a>.
<p>Easiest way of changing the exit-behaviour is subclassing the original main class:
<pre>
public class CustomExitCode extends org.apache.tools.ant.Main {
protected void exit(int exitCode) {
// implement your own behaviour, e.g. NOT exiting the JVM
}
}
</pre> and starting Ant with access (<tt>-lib path-to-class</tt>) to this class.
</p>
<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 administrators.
</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 and 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>
<blockquote>
<pre>ant -lib one.jar;another.jar</pre>
<pre>ant -lib one.jar -lib another.jar</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>adds two jars to Ants classpath.</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 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" * > ..\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.build.javac.source</code></td>
<td>Source-level version number</td>
<td>Default <em>source</em> value for <javac>/<javadoc></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>ant.build.javac.target</code></td>
<td>Class-compatibility version number</td>
<td>Default <em>target</em> value for <javac></td>
</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="Tasks/import.html">
<import>-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="Tasks/import.html">
<import>-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.netrexxc.*</code></td>
<td>several formats</td>
<td>Use specified values as defaults for <a href="Tasks/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 uses JDK 1.4's implementation;
<a href="Types/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="Tasks/javac.html">javac</a>,
<a href="Tasks/ejb.html#ejbjar_weblogic">EJB Tasks</a>
(compiler attribute),
<a href="Tasks/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="Tasks/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="Tasks/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="Tasks/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="Tasks/javac.html">javac</a> "Jikes Notes"
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>build.compiler.warnings</code></td>
<td>Deprecated flag</td>
<td> see <a href="Tasks/javac.html">javac</a> "Jikes Notes" </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>build.rmic</code></td>
<td>name</td>
<td>control the <a href="Tasks/rmic.html">rmic</a> compiler </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>build.sysclasspath</code></td>
<td>see <a href="sysclasspath.html">its dedicated page</a>, no
default value</td>
<td>see <a href="sysclasspath.html">its dedicated page</a></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="Tasks/translate.html">translate</a> <br>
see JavaDoc of <a target="_blank" href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/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.ProjectHelper2')</td>
<td>specifies the classname to use as ProjectHelper. The class must extend
org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>org.apache.tools.ant.ArgumentProcessor</code></td>
<td>classname (optional)</td>
<td>specifies the classname to use as ArgumentProcessor. The class must extend
org.apache.tools.ant.ArgumentProcessor.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>websphere.home</code></td>
<td>path</td>
<td>Points to home directory of websphere.
see <a href="Tasks/ejb.html#ejbjar_websphere">EJB Tasks</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>XmlLogger.file</code></td>
<td>filename (default 'log.xml')</td>
<td>Name for the logfile for <a href="listeners.html#MailLogger">MailLogger</a>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>ant.project-helper-repo.debug</code></td>
<td>boolean (default 'false')</td>
<td>Set it to true to enable debugging with Ant's
<a href="projecthelper.html#repository">ProjectHelper internal repository</a>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>ant.argument-processor-repo.debug</code></td>
<td>boolean (default 'false')</td>
<td>Set it to true to enable debugging with Ant's
<a href="argumentprocessor.html#repository">ArgumentProcessor internal repository</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. This protects you from future
Ant releases breaking your build file.
</p>
<h3>return code</h3>
<p>the ant start up scripts (in their Windows and Unix version) return
the return code of the java program. So a successful build returns 0,
failed builds return other values.
</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 from the Cygwin shell. It is
important to note, however, that once Ant is running 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 Cygwin paths, etc. In
particular when using the <code><exec></code> task, executable names such
as "/bin/sh" will not work, even though these work from the Cygwin
shell from which Ant was launched. You can use an executable name such as
"sh" 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 to perform complex tasks. It has two parts:
<code>ant.cmd</code> which calls Ant and <code>antenv.cmd</code> which sets the 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 configuration
<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 automatically 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 auxiliary tasks. All scripts
have some documentation inside.</p>
<h2><a name="background">Running Ant as a background process on
Unix(-like) systems</a></h2>
<p>If you start Ant as a background process (like in <code>ant
&</code>) and the build process creates another process, Ant will
immediately try to read from standard input, which in turn will
most likely suspend the process. In order to avoid this, you must
redirect Ant's standard input or explicitly provide input to each
spawned process via the input related attributes of the
corresponding tasks.</p>
<p>Tasks that create such new processes
include <code><exec></code>, <code><apply></code>
or <code><java></code> when the <code>fork</code> attribute is
<code>true</code>.</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
from one of 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, -nouserlib, -noclasspath options 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>
<a name="viaant"/>
Ant can be started in Ant via the <code><java></code> command.
Here is an example:
<pre>
<java
classname="org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher"
fork="true"
failonerror="true"
dir="${sub.builddir}"
timeout="4000000"
taskname="startAnt">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="${ant.home}/lib/ant-launcher.jar"/>
</classpath>
<arg value="-buildfile"/>
<arg file="${sub.buildfile}"/>
<arg value="-Dthis=this"/>
<arg value="-Dthat=that"/>
<arg value="-Dbasedir=${sub.builddir}"/>
<arg value="-Dthe.other=the.other"/>
<arg value="${sub.target}"/>
</java>
</pre>
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