How to execute Ant build in command line

Question

I have an Ant build file  and I try to execute it in the command line with the following command     C  Program Files  x86        gt ant -f C  Silk4J Automation iControlSilk4J build xml   But nothing happens  and the result is   BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time  0 seconds   My environment variable is correct   What is the problem  Here is my build file    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  UTF-8  standalone  no   gt   lt  -- WARNING  Eclipse auto-generated file                Any modifications will be overwritten                To include a user specific buildfile here  simply create one in the same               directory with the processing instruction  lt  eclipse ant import  gt                as the first entry and export the buildfile again  -- gt   lt project basedir     default  build  name  iControlSilk4J  gt       lt property environment  env   gt       lt property name  ECLIPSE HOME  value           Program Files  x86  Silk SilkTest eclipse   gt       lt property name  junit output dir  value  junit   gt       lt property name  debuglevel  value  source lines vars   gt       lt property name  target  value  1 6   gt       lt property name  source  value  1 6   gt       lt path id  Silk Test JTF 13 5 0 Library libraryclasspath  gt           lt pathelement location           Program Files  x86  Silk SilkTest ng JTF silktest-jtf-nodeps jar   gt       lt  path gt       lt path id  JUnit 4 libraryclasspath  gt           lt pathelement location    ECLIPSE HOME  plugins org junit 4 8 2 v4 8 2 v20110321-1705 junit jar   gt           lt pathelement location    ECLIPSE HOME  plugins org hamcrest core 1 1 0 v20090501071000 jar   gt       lt  path gt       lt path id  iControlSilk4J classpath  gt           lt pathelement location  bin   gt           lt pathelement location  lib apache-log4j jar   gt           lt pathelement location  lib commons-io-2 4 jar   gt           lt pathelement location  lib commons-lang3-3 1 jar   gt           lt pathelement location  lib junit jar   gt           lt pathelement location  lib org hamcrest core 1 1 0 v20090501071000 jar   gt           lt pathelement location  lib silktest-jtf-nodeps jar   gt           lt path refid  Silk Test JTF 13 5 0 Library libraryclasspath   gt           lt path refid  JUnit 4 libraryclasspath   gt           lt pathelement location           Users Admin Desktop java-mail-1 4 4 jar   gt           lt pathelement location           Users Admin Desktop javax activation jar   gt           lt pathelement location  lib joda-time-2 3 jar   gt       lt  path gt       lt target name  init  gt           lt mkdir dir  bin   gt           lt copy includeemptydirs  false  todir  bin  gt               lt fileset dir  src  gt                   lt exclude name       java   gt               lt  fileset gt           lt  copy gt       lt  target gt       lt target name  clean  gt           lt delete dir  bin   gt       lt  target gt       lt target depends  clean  name  cleanall   gt       lt target depends  build-subprojects build-project  name  build   gt       lt target name  build-subprojects   gt       lt target depends  init  name  build-project  gt           lt echo message    ant project name     ant file    gt           lt javac debug  true  debuglevel    debuglevel   destdir  bin  source    source   target    target   gt               lt src path  src   gt               lt classpath refid  iControlSilk4J classpath   gt           lt  javac gt       lt  target gt       lt target description  Build all projects which reference this project  Useful to propagate changes   name  build-refprojects   gt       lt target description  copy Eclipse compiler jars to ant lib directory  name  init-eclipse-compiler  gt           lt copy todir    ant library dir   gt               lt fileset dir    ECLIPSE HOME  plugins  includes  org eclipse jdt core   jar   gt           lt  copy gt           lt unzip dest    ant library dir   gt               lt patternset includes  jdtCompilerAdapter jar   gt               lt fileset dir    ECLIPSE HOME  plugins  includes  org eclipse jdt core   jar   gt           lt  unzip gt       lt  target gt       lt target description  compile project with Eclipse compiler  name  build-eclipse-compiler  gt           lt property name  build compiler  value  org eclipse jdt core JDTCompilerAdapter   gt           lt antcall target  build   gt

User · Answer

is it still actual   As I can see you wrote  lt target depends  build-subprojects build-project  name  build   gt   then you wrote  lt target name  build-subprojects   gt   it does nothing   Could it be a reason  Does this  lt echo message    ant project name     ant file    gt  print appropriate message  If no then target is not running   Take a look at the next link http   www sqaforums com showflat php Number 623277

User · Answer

Go to the Ant website and download  This way  you have a copy of Ant outside of Eclipse  I recommend to put it under the C  ant directory  This way  it doesn t have any spaces in the directory names  In your System Control Panel  set the Environment Variable ANT HOME to this directory  then pre-pend to the System PATHvariable   ANT HOME  bin  This way  you don t have to put in the whole directory name   Assuming you did the above  try this   C   gt  cd  Silk4J Automation iControlSilk4J C  Silk4J Automation iControlSilk4J gt  ant -d build   This will do several things    It will eliminate the possibility that the problem is with Eclipe s version of Ant  It is way easier to type Since you re executing the build xml in the directory where it exists  you don t end up with the possibility that your Ant build can t locate a particular directory    The -d will print out a lot of output  so you might want to capture it  or set your terminal buffer to something like 99999  and run cls first to clear out the buffer  This way  you ll capture all of the output from the beginning in the terminal buffer   Let s see how Ant should be executing  You didn t specify any targets to execute  so Ant should be taking the default build target  Here it is    lt target depends  build-subprojects build-project  name  build   gt    The build target does nothing itself  However  it depends upon two other targets  so these will be called first   The first target is build-subprojects    lt target name  build-subprojects   gt    This does nothing at all  It doesn t even have a dependency   The next target specified is build-project does have code    lt target depends  init  name  build-project  gt    This target does contain tasks  and some dependent targets  Before build-project executes  it will first run the init target    lt target name  init  gt       lt mkdir dir  bin   gt       lt copy includeemptydirs  false  todir  bin  gt           lt fileset dir  src  gt               lt exclude name       java   gt           lt  fileset gt       lt  copy gt   lt  target gt    This target creates a directory called bin  then copies all files under the src tree with the suffix   java over to the bin directory  The includeemptydirs mean that directories without non-java code will not be created   Ant uses a scheme to do minimal work  For example  if the bin directory is created  the  lt mkdir  gt  task is not executed  Also  if a file was previously copied  or there are no non-Java files in your src directory tree  the  lt copy  gt  task won t run  However  the init target will still be executed   Next  we go back to our previous build-project target    lt target depends  init  name  build-project  gt       lt echo message    ant project name     ant file    gt       lt javac debug  true  debuglevel    debuglevel   destdir  bin  source    source   target    target   gt           lt src path  src   gt           lt classpath refid  iControlSilk4J classpath   gt       lt  javac gt   lt  target gt    Look at this line    lt echo message    ant project name     ant file    gt    That should have always executed  Did your output print    echo  iControlSilk4J  C  Silk4J Automation iControlSilk4J build xml   Maybe you didn t realize that was from your build   After that  it runs the  lt javac  gt  task  That is  if there s any files to actually compile  Again  Ant tries to avoid work it doesn t have to do  If all of the   java files have previously been compiled  the  lt javac  gt  task won t execute   And  that s the end of the build  Your build might not have done anything simply because there was nothing to do  You can try running the clean task  and then build   C  Silk4J Automation iControlSilk4J gt  ant -d clean build   However  Ant usually prints the target being executed  You should have seen this   init   build-subprojects   build-projects        echo  iControlSilk4J  C  Silk4J Automation iControlSilk4J build xml  build   Build Successful   Note that the targets are all printed out in order they re executed  and the tasks are printed out as they are executed  However  if there s nothing to compile  or nothing to copy  then you won t see these tasks being executed  Does this look like your output  If so  it could be there s nothing to do    If the bin directory already exists   lt mkdir  gt  isn t going to execute  If there are no non-Java files in src  or they have already been copied into bin  the  lt copy  gt  task won t execute  If there are no Java file in your src directory  or they have already been compiled  the  lt java  gt  task won t run    If you look at the output from the -d debug  you ll see Ant looking at a task  then explaining why a particular task wasn t executed  Plus  the debug option will explain how Ant decides what tasks to execute   See if that helps

User · Answer

Try running all targets individually to check that all are running correct  run ant target name to run a target individually  e g  ant build-project  Also the default target you specified is      project basedir     default  build  name  iControlSilk4J    This will only execute build-subprojects build-project and init

[ant] How to execute Ant build in command line

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