If you've installed Ant as described in the
Installing Ant section,
running Ant from the command-line is simple: just type
ant.
When no arguments are specified, Ant looks for a build.xml
file in the current directory and, if found, uses that file as the
build file and runs the target specified in the default
attribute of the <project> tag.
To make Ant use
a build file other than build.xml, use the command-line
option -buildfile file
-find [file]build.xml. To have it search for a build file other
than build.xml, specify a file argument.
Note: If you include any other flags or arguments
on the command line after
the -find-findbuild.xml.
You can also set properties on the
command line. This can be done with
the -Dproperty=value-DMYVAR=%MYVAR%-DMYVAR=$MYVAR${MYVAR}.
You can also access environment variables using the
property task's
environment attribute.
Options that affect the amount of logging output by Ant are:
-quiet-verbose-debug
It is also possible to specify one or more targets that should be executed.
When omitted, the target that is specified in the
default attribute of the
project tag is
used.
The -projecthelpdescription attribute are listed as "Main targets",
those without a description are listed as
"Subtargets", then the "Default" target is listed.
ant [options] [target [target2 [target3] ...]]
Options:
-help print this message
-projecthelp 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 print debugging information
-emacs produce logging information without adornments
-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
-buildfile <file> use given buildfile
-file <file> ''
-f <file> ''
-D<property>=<value> use value for given property
-propertyfile <name> load all properties from file with -D
properties taking precedence
-inputhandler <class> the class which will handle input requests
-find <file> search for buildfile towards the root of the
filesystem and use it
For more information about -logger and
-listener see
Loggers & Listeners.
For more information about -inputhandler see
InputHandler.
ant
runs Ant using the build.xml file in the current directory, on
the default target.
ant -buildfile test.xml
runs Ant using the test.xml file in the current directory, on
the default target.
ant -buildfile test.xml dist
runs Ant using the test.xml file in the current directory, on
the target called dist.
ant -buildfile test.xml -Dbuild=build/classes dist
runs Ant using the test.xml file in the current directory, on
the target called dist, setting the build property
to the value build/classes.
The Ant wrapper script for Unix will source (read and evaluate) the
file ~/.antrc before it does anything. On Windows, the Ant
wrapper batch-file invokes %HOME%\antrc_pre.bat at the start and
%HOME%\antrc_post.bat 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.
The wrapper scripts use the following environment variables (if set):
JAVACMD - full path of the Java executable. Use this
to invoke a different JVM than JAVA_HOME/bin/java(.exe).ANT_OPTS - 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.ANT_ARGS - Ant command-line arguments. For example,
set ANT_ARGS to point to a different logger, include a
listener, and to include the -find flag.-find
in ANT_ARGS, you should include the name of the build file
to find, even if the file is called build.xml.
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 <exec> 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.
If you have installed Ant in the do-it-yourself way, Ant can be started with:
java -Dant.home=c:\ant org.apache.tools.ant.Main [options] [target]
These instructions actually do exactly the same as the ant
command. The options and target are the same as when running Ant with the ant
command. This example assumes you have set your classpath to include:
ant.jarCopyright © 2000-2003 Apache Software Foundation. All rights Reserved.