Java Glossary : Ant

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An open-source Java-based Make tool. Javac does not need a make since it is capable of figuring out for itself what needs to be recompiled, however for reasons I don't yet understand Ant is very popular. Perhaps it is because people don't know how to feed Javac large collections of files to compile at once. Perhaps it is because it handles many of the peripheral chores to compilation to getting a build ready. Ant is multiplatform where batch files are not, making it better suited for team programming where developers may be using a variety of OSes.

Normally ANT just feeds all the source files to javac.exe, invoking it only once. If you use the DEPEND function it will delete some class files before doing this to force Java to recompile based on dependencies. I have heard conflicting reports on whether it will catch all the recompilations needed. Adding JAVAMAKE to ANT makes is slightly smarter, but it still cannot be relied on to catch all the files that need recompiling. It is conservative, and recompiles even more than it needs to when a static final changes. Whenever you change static finals in ANT, you had better recompile the universe.

Ant: The Definitive Guide

0-596-00184-3

By Jesse E. Tilly, Eric M. Burke

an O'Reilly book.

Ant Factory ¤ Ant presentation from JavaOne 2002 ¤ Anthill ¤ AntView (Plugin for Eclipse) ¤ C2 Ant wiki ¤ Centipede ¤ CruiseControl ¤ IBM J-Ant build ¤ IBM J-Ant ¤ Jakarta Ant resources ¤ Java Guru Ant FAQ ¤ Java Guru Ant Forums ¤ Nant ¤ On Java article ¤ Turbine

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