Apache Ant
Ant is a Java based build tool, similar to make, but with better support for the cross platform issues involved with developing Java applications. Ant is the build tool of choice for all Java projects at Apache and many other Open Source Java projects.
| Tags | Software Development Build Tools |
|---|---|
| Licenses | Apache Apache 2.0 |
| Operating Systems | OS Independent |
| Implementation | Java |
Recent releases
- 09 Jul 2008 17:30
Changes: The main release focus is on fixing bugs and improving performance. Java 6 support has been enhanced, and JavaFX is supported by the script task.
- 20 Dec 2006 04:17
Changes: A resource framework was introduced. Some of the core ant tasks such as copy are now able to process not only file system resources but also zip entries, tar entries, and paths. Resource collections group resources, and can be further combined with operators such as union and intersection. This version starts outsourcing of optional tasks to Antlibs. The .NET antlib replaces the .NET optional tasks. Support for the version control system Subversion is also provided as an antlib. A large number of bugs were fixed. Some initial support for Java6 features was added.
- 12 Nov 2006 17:12
Changes: Deferred references are allowed again, but with a warning. The war task makes the web.xml file optional in accordance with the servlet 2.5 API.
- 15 Oct 2006 18:44
Changes: Bugfixes. References are now processed when targets are executed, not at parse time.
- 18 Sep 2006 07:34
Changes: This version contains some bugfixes and improvements compared to 1.7.0Beta1, particularly concerning the script task. Ant 1.7 introduces a resource framework. Some of the core ant tasks such as <:copy/>: are now able to process not only file system resources but also zip entries, tar entries, and paths. Resource collections group resources, and can be further combined with operators such as union and intersection. This can be extended by custom resources and custom tasks using resources. Ant 1.7 starts outsourcing of optional tasks to Antlibs, such as .NET, svn, and antunit.
- All comments
Recent commentsArguably the Best Build Tool Ever
I never liked the syntax of GNU makefiles. I used a shell script to build C++ projects from scratch instead of `make`. When I was hired as a Java developer, one of my tasks was to get familiar with the build process since I would be responsible for making any changes to it. So I had to learn about some tool called Ant, which was described to me as `make` for Java. Well I wasn't too thrilled with this idea since I hated `make`. However, within 5 minutes of sitting down with an Ant book and reading sample Ant scripts, I was hooked.
Ant is the killer Java utility. A must-have for any Java project. It takes a few minutes to create a basic build process using simple XML scripting. Ant shines with it's file set support so you can use wildcards to include or exclude certain files during a process. There are an abundant amount of tasks that can be used in Ant, ranging from FTP, Telnet, E-mail, CVS to JSP, EJB, RMI, and J2EE. Many Java utilities suitable for a build process such as JUnit and JProbe can be used within Ant.
Ant has really made my job enjoyable!