Live and Learn – ant

Resources Ant User Manual

http://ant.apache.org/manual/index.html Skip the book, most of the material is right here

Apache Ant 101 – DeveloperWorks http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/j-d

w-java-apant-i.html Totally righteous tutorial

Questions from Live and Learn1. What is the basic structure of an Ant file? 2. What's required and what's optional? 3. What is the difference between build.xml and

build.properties? 4. What is the advantages/disadvantages of defining

properties in build.properties instead of build.xml? 5. How do I create and destroy directories? 6. How do I define projects to run using Ant? 7. Other hints and suggestions from an expert? 8. How to do junit tasks? 9. How to do task dependencies (don't compile unless

fetch got stuff)

Basic structure Entities:

Project Targets Tasks Types

Project contains tasks, which contain targets and types

Implicit target contains all “top-level” targets and types is executed each time ant is invoked, even for

-projecthelp

Minimal file<?xml version="1.0"?><project default="doItAll"> <target name="doItAll"> <mkdir dir="build"/> <mkdir dir="dist"/> <javac srcdir="src" destdir="build"/> <jar destfile="dist/package-src.jar" basedir="src"/> <jar destfile="dist/package.jar" basedir="build"> </target>

<target name="clean"> <delete dir="build"/> <delete dir="dist"/> </target> </project>

Sample file (unreadable)<?xml version="1.0"?><project default="dist" name="Project Argon"> <description>A simple Java project</description>

<property name="srcDir" location="src"/> <property name="buildDir" location="build"/> <property name="distDir" location="dist"/>

<target name="init"> <tstamp/> <mkdir dir="${buildDir}"/> <mkdir dir="${distDir}"/> </target>

<target name="compile" depends="init"> <javac srcdir="${srcDir}" destdir="${buildDir}"/> </target>

<target name="dist" depends="compile"> <jar destfile="${distDir}/package-${DSTAMP}.jar" basedir="${buildDir}"> <manifest> <attribute name="Built-By" value="${user.name}"/> <attribute name="Main-Class" value="pkg.Main"/> </manifest> </jar> <jar destfile="${distDir}/package-src-${DSTAMP}.jar" basedir="${srcDir}"/> </target>

<target name="clean"> <delete dir="${buildDir}"/> <delete dir="${distDir}"/> </target> </project>

Sample file (part 1)<?xml version="1.0"?><project default="dist" name="Project Argon"> <description>A simple Java project</description>

<property name="srcDir" location="src"/> <property name="buildDir" location="build"/> <property name="distDir" location="dist"/>

<target name="init"> <tstamp/> <mkdir dir="${buildDir}"/> <mkdir dir="${distDir}"/> </target>

<target name="compile" depends="init"> <javac srcdir="${srcDir}" destdir="${buildDir}"/> </target>

Sample file (part 2) <target name="dist" depends="compile"> <jar destfile="${distDir}/package-${DSTAMP}.jar" basedir="${buildDir}"> <manifest> <attribute name="Built-By" value="${user.name}"/> <attribute name="Main-Class" value="pkg.Main"/> </manifest> </jar> <jar destfile="${distDir}/package-src-${DSTAMP}.jar“ basedir="${srcDir}"/> </target>

<target name="clean"> <delete dir="${buildDir}"/> <delete dir="${distDir}"/> </target> </project>

Properties Write-once! From command line:

ant -D key=value Built-in:

basedir, ant.file, ant.version, ant.project.name, ant.java.version

Java System properties http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/lang/S

ystem.html#getProperties() From the Property task

Property task explicitly stated:

<property name="foo.dist" value="dist"/> <property name="foo.dist" location="dist"/>

pulled from a file: Java-style properties file syntax.

<property file="${user.home}/my.properties"/>

pulled from the environment:<property environment="env"/><echo message="ANT_HOME is $

{env.ANT_HOME}"/> also URL or Resource

Example from ExpertVoices<target name="init"> <property environment="env"/> <fail unless="env.EV_CONFIG" message="Environment variable 'EV_CONFIG' is not set"/> <property name="config_property_file“ location="properties/${env.EV_CONFIG}.build.properties"/> <available file="${config_property_file}" type="file“ property="config_property_file_present"/> <fail unless="config_property_file_present“ message="Property file '${config_property_file}'

missing"/> <property file="${config_property_file}"/>

<property name="common_property_file“ location="properties/_common.build.properties"/> <property file="${common_property_file}"/></target>

File Set Inline:

<copy todir="${build_wpmu_dir}"> <fileset dir="${wpmu_fixes_dir}"> <exclude name="**/CVS/*" /> <exclude name="**/EV_ReadMe" /> </fileset></copy>

By reference:<fileset id="these_files" dir="${wpmu_fixes_dir}"> <exclude name="**/CVS/*" /> <exclude name="**/EV_ReadMe" /></fileset>

<copy todir="${build_wpmu_dir}"> <fileset refid="these_files" /></copy>

Pattern Set Inline or by reference

<patternset id="skip_unwanted_files"> <exclude name="**/CVS/*" /> <exclude name="**/EV_ReadMe" /></patternset>

<copy todir="${build_wpmu_dir}"> <fileset dir="${wpmu_fixes_dir}"> <patternset refid="skip_unwanted_files"/> </fileset></copy>

Path-like structures -simple<classpath>

<pathelement path="${classpath}"/>

<pathelement location="lib/helper.jar"/>

</classpath>

Path-like structures - complex<path id="base.path"> <pathelement path="${classpath}"/> <fileset dir="lib"> <include name="**/*.jar"/> </fileset> <pathelement location="classes"/></path>

<path id="tests.path"> <path refid="base.path"/> <pathelement location="testclasses"/></path>

Other types Selectors

Selectors are a mechanism whereby the files that make up a fileset can be selected based on criteria other than filename.

Filtersets<copy file="${build.dir}/version.txt"

toFile="${dist.dir}/version.txt">

<filterset>

<filter token="DATE" value="${TODAY}"/>

</filterset>

</copy>

Optional tasks

Require libraries that are not supplied with Ant Put them in Ant’s lib directory, or add to

the system classpath

Optional tasks - gotchas from

http://ant.apache.org/manual/OptionalTasks/junit.html

Note: You must have junit.jar and the class files for the <junit> task in the same classpath. You can do one of: Put both junit.jar and the optional tasks jar file in

ANT_HOME/lib. Do not put either in ANT_HOME/lib, and instead

include their locations in your CLASSPATH environment variable.

Do neither of the above, and instead, specify their locations using a <classpath> element in the build file. See the FAQ for details.

If – Then – Else<target name="if-then-else"> <condition property="condition"> <available file="fileone"/> </condition> <antcall target="then"/> <antcall target="else"/></target>

<target name="then" if="condition"> <echo>THEN BODY EXECUTED</echo></target>

<target name="else" unless="condition"> <echo>ELSE BODY EXECUTED</echo></target>

“Subroutines” with parameters<target name="add_third_party_themes"> <antcall target="__load_extensions"> <param name="extensions_dir" value="${third_party_themes_dir}"/> <param name="destination_dir“ value="${build_wpmu_themes_dir}"/> </antcall></target>

<target name="__load_extensions"> <copy todir="${destination_dir}" overwrite="true"> <fileset dir="${extensions_dir}"> <patternset refid="skip_unwanted_files"/> </fileset> </copy></target>

Loops<taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties"> <classpath path="${ant_contrib_jar_path}" /></taskdef>

<target name="looper"> <foreach target="unzip_extension" param="zip_file" inheritall="Yes"> <path> <fileset dir="${extensions_dir}" includes="*.zip"/> </path> </foreach></target>

<target name="unzip_extension"> <unzip src="${zip_file}" dest="${destination_dir}"/></target>