[java] Ant build failed: "Target "build..xml" does not exist"

When I run the ant file in verbose mode, I got an error like the one below. Does anyone have any ideas what is going wrong? I am new to this

antlib:org.apache.tools.ant] Could not load definitions from resource org/apach
e/tools/ant/antlib.xml. It could not be found.
Override ignored for property "java.home"
BUILD FAILED
Target "build.xml" does not exist in the project "MYPROJECT".
        at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.tsort(Project.java:1821)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.Project..topoSort(Project.java:1729)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.topoSort(Project.java:1692)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTarget(Project.java:1298)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.helper.DefaultExecutor.executeTargets(DefaultExecutor.java:41)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTargets(Project.java:1181)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:698)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.startAnt(Main.java:199)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:257)
        at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:104)
Total time: 1 second

This is my build.xml:

<project name="MYPROJECT" default="dev" basedir=".">
  <property name="build.home" value="build/jsp" />
  <property name="tomcat.home" location="../Tomcat 5.0/" />
  <path id="project.class.path">
    <fileset dir="./lib/">
      <include name="**/*.jar" />
    </fileset>
  </path>
  <target name="reltag">
    <tstamp>
      <format property="now" pattern="d MMM yyyy HH:mm" />
    </tstamp>
    <property name="reltag" value="Built date: ${now}" />
  </target>
  <target name="dev" depends="compile" description="Builds for development">
    <mkdir dir="jsp/WEB-INF/lib" />
    <mkdir dir="jsp/WEB-INF/classes" />
    <copy todir="jsp/WEB-INF/lib">
      <fileset dir="lib">
        <exclude name="**/CVS/*" />
      </fileset>
    </copy>
    <copy todir="jsp/WEB-INF/classes">
      <fileset dir="classes">
        <exclude name="**/CVS/*" />
      </fileset>
    </copy>
  </target>
  <target name="compile" depends="myproject-gen,reltag">
    <copy file="setup/Version.java.template" tofile="java/myproject/Version.java" overwrite="true">
      <filterset>
        <filter token="VERSION" value="${reltag}" />
      </filterset>
    </copy>
    <mkdir dir="classes" />
    <depend srcdir="java" destdir="classes" cache="depcache" />
    <javac srcdir="java" destdir="classes">
      <classpath refid="project.class.path" />
    </javac>
  </target>
  <target name="myproject-gen" description="Generates torque classes and SQL for myproject">
    <!-- generate the java files -->
    <ant dir="torque" target="om" />
    <antcall target="myproject-sql-mysql" />
  </target>
  <!-- generate the schema.sql script for MySQL -->
  <target name="myproject-sql-mysql" depends="myproject-sql-mysql-check" unless="mysql.schema.up.to.date">
    <echo message="Generating SQL file for MySQL" />
    <ant dir="torque" target="sql">
      <property name="torque.database" value="mysql" />
      <property name="torque.runOnlyOnSchemaChange" value="false" />
    </ant>
    <move file="sql/gen/myproject-schema.sql" tofile="sql/gen/myproject-schema-mysql.sql" overwrite="true" />
    <copy file="sql/gen/myproject-schema-mysql.sql" tofile="jsp/admin/database.sql" overwrite="true" />
    <copy file="sql/init.sql" tofile="jsp/admin/init.sql" overwrite="true" />
  </target>
  <!-- check if we need to generate the sql file -->
  <target name="myproject-sql-mysql-check">
    <uptodate property="mysql.schema.up.to.date" targetfile="sql/gen/myproject-schema-mysql.sql" srcfile="torque/myproject-schema.xml" />
  </target>
  <target name="myproject-war" depends="compile-jsp">
    <mkdir dir="build" />
    <jar destfile="build/myproject.war" basedir="build/jsp" />
  </target>
  <target name="prepare_for_war_file">
    <mkdir dir="build\jsp-classes\org\apache\jsp" />
    <!-- <move todir="${build.home}/WEB-INF/classes/org/apache/jsp"> <fileset dir="${build.home}"> <include name="*.jsp"/> </fileset> </move> -->
    <!-- copy everything which is not a jsp to admin directory -->
    <copy tofile="${build.home}/admin/database.sql">
      <fileset file="sql/gen/*-schema-mysql.sql" />
    </copy>
    <copy file="sql/init.sql" todir="${build.home}/admin" />
    <mkdir dir="${build.home}/pdb_files" />
    <!-- copy images directory -->
    <copy todir="${build.home}/images">
      <fileset dir="jsp/images" />
    </copy>
    <copy todir="${build.home}/hand">
      <fileset dir="jsp/hand" />
    </copy>
    <!-- copy javascript directory -->
    <copy todir="${build.home}/javascript">
      <fileset dir="jsp/javascript" />
    </copy>
    <!-- copy META-INF directory -->
    <copy todir="${build.home}/META-INF">
      <fileset dir="jsp/META-INF" />
    </copy>
    <!-- copy stylesheet directory -->
    <copy todir="${build.home}/stylesheet">
      <fileset dir="jsp/stylesheet" />
    </copy>
    <!-- copy WEB-INF directory -->
    <copy todir="${build.home}/WEB-INF/classes/">
      <fileset dir="classes/" includes="**" />
    </copy>
    <copy todir="${build.home}/WEB-INF/lib">
      <fileset dir="lib" includes="*.*" excludes="Cabwiz" />
    </copy>
    <!-- copy license and properties -->
    <!--<copy file="WebContent/myproject.license" todir="${build.home}"/> -->
    <copy file="jsp/myproject.properties" todir="${build.home}" />
    <!-- move jsp classes to the correct package structure so war file will work when deployed -->
    <move todir="${build.home}/WEB-INF/classes/org/apache/jsp">
      <fileset dir="${build.home}" includes="**/*.class" excludes="WEB-INF/**" />
    </move>
    <antcall target="create-web_XML"></antcall>
  </target>
  <target name="create-web_XML">
    <loadfile property="generated.web.xml" srcFile="jsp/WEB-INF/generated_web.xml" />
    <copy file="jsp/WEB-INF/web_template.xml" tofile="jsp/WEB-INF/web.xml.deployable" overwrite="true">
      <filterset begintoken="&lt;!--" endToken="--&gt;">
        <filter token="GENERATED_WEB_XML" value="${generated.web.xml}" />
      </filterset>
    </copy>
    <copy file="jsp/WEB-INF/web.xml.deployable" tofile="build/jsp/WEB-INF/web.xml" />
  </target>
  <target name="compile-jsp" depends="dev">
    <antcall target="prepare_for_war_file"></antcall>
    <property environment="env" />
    <taskdef classname="org.apache.jasper.JspC" name="jasper2">
      <classpath id="jspc.classpath">
        <pathelement location="${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar" />
        <fileset dir="${env.tomcat.home}/bin2">
          <include name="*.jar" />
        </fileset>
        <fileset dir="${env.tomcat.home}/server/lib">
          <include name="*.jar" />
        </fileset>
        <fileset dir="${env.tomcat.home}/common/lib">
          <include name="*.jar" />
        </fileset>
      </classpath>
    </taskdef>
    <mkdir dir="java/jsp-src" />
    <jasper2 validateXml="false" package="org.apache.jsp" uriroot="jsp" webXmlFragment="jsp/WEB-INF/generated_web.xml" outputDir="java/jsp-src" />
    <jspc srcdir="jsp" destdir="java/jsp-src">
      <include name="include/**/*.jsp" />
      <include name="**/*.jsp" />
    </jspc>
    <mkdir dir="build/jsp-classes" />
    <property environment="env" />
    <javac destdir="build/jsp/WEB-INF/classes" optimize="off" debug="on" failonerror="true" srcdir="java/jsp-src" excludes="**/*.smap">
      <classpath>
        <pathelement location="classes" />
        <fileset dir="lib">
          <include name="*.jar" />
        </fileset>
        <pathelement location="${env.tomcat.home}/common/classes" />
        <fileset dir="${env.tomcat.home}/common/lib">
          <include name="*.jar" />
        </fileset>
        <pathelement location="${env.tomcat.home}/shared/classes" />
        <fileset dir="${env.tomcat.home}/shared/lib">
          <include name="*.jar" />
        </fileset>
        <fileset dir="${env.tomcat.home}/bin">
          <include name="*.jar" />
        </fileset>
      </classpath>
      <include name="**" />
      <!--<exclude name="**/includes/*menu_jsp.java" /> -->
    </javac>
  </target>
  <target name="clean" description="Deletes the java/classes dir and torque base objects">
    <delete dir="classes" />
    <delete dir="${build.home}" />
    <delete>
      <fileset file="build/*" />
    </delete>
    <delete dir="java/myproject/torque/map" />
    <delete dir="java/jsp-src" />
    <delete dir="jsp/WEB-INF/classes" />
    <delete dir="jsp/WEB-INF/lib" />
    <delete>
      <fileset dir="java/myproject/torque" includes="Base*.java" />
    </delete>
    <touch file="torque/myproject-schema.xml" />
  </target>
</project>

in the folder where the build.xml resides run command only -

ant

and not the command - `

ant build.xml

`

. if you are using the ant file as build xml then the below steps helps you Steps : open cmd Prompt >> switch to the project location >>type ant and click enter key

since your ant file's name is build.xml, you should just type ant without ant build.xml. that is: > ant [enter]

I'm probably late but this worked for me:

1. Open your build.xml file located in your project's directory.
2. Copy and Paste the following code in the main project tag : <target name="build" />

1. Probably you don't have environment variable ANT_HOME set properly
2. It seems that you are calling Ant like this: "ant build..xml". If your ant script has name build.xml you need to specify only a target in command line. For example: "ant target1".

Is this a problem Only when you run ant -d or ant -verbose, but works other times?

I noticed this error message line:

Could not load definitions from resource org/apache/tools/ant/antlib.xml. It could not be found.

The org/apache/tools/ant/antlib.xml file is embedded in the ant.jar. The ant command is really a shell script called ant or a batch script called ant.bat. If the environment variable ANT_HOME is not set, it will figure out where it's located by looking to see where the ant command itself is located.

Sometimes I've seen this where someone will move the ant shell/batch script to put it in their path, and have ANT_HOME either not set, or set incorrectly.

What platform are you on? Is this Windows or Unix/Linux/MacOS? If you're on Windows, check to see if %ANT_HOME% is set. If it is, make sure it's the right directory. Make sure you have set your PATH to include %ANT_HOME%/bin.

If you're on Unix, don't copy the ant shell script to an executable directory. Instead, make a symbolic link. I have a directory called /usr/local/bin where I put the command I want to override the commands in /bin and /usr/bin. My Ant is installed in /opt/ant-1.9.2, and I have a symbolic link from /opt/ant-1.9.2 to /opt/ant. Then, I have symbolic links from all commands in /opt/ant/bin to /usr/local/bin. The Ant shell script can detect the symbolic links and find the correct Ant HOME location.

Next, go to your Ant installation directory and look under the lib directory to make sure ant.jar is there, and that it contains org/apache/tools/ant/antlib.xml. You can use the jar tvf ant.jar command. The only thing I can emphasize is that you do have everything setup correctly. You have your Ant shell script in your PATH either because you included the bin directory of your Ant's HOME directory in your classpath, or (if you're on Unix/Linux/MacOS), you have that file symbolically linked to a directory in your PATH.

Make sure your JAVA_HOME is set correctly (on Unix, you can use the symbolic link trick to have the java command set it for you), and that you're using Java 1.5 or higher. Java 1.4 will no longer work with newer versions of Ant.

Also run ant -version and see what you get. You might get the same error as before which leads me to think you have something wrong.

Let me know what you find, and your OS, and I can give you directions on reinstalling Ant.

Looks like you called it 'ant build..xml'. ant automatically choose a file build.xml in the current directory, so it is enough to call 'ant' (if a default-target is defined) or 'ant target' (the target named target will be called).

With the call 'ant -p' you get a list of targets defined in your build.xml.

Edit: In the comment is shown the call 'ant -verbose build.xml'. To be correct, this has to be called as 'ant -verbose'. The file build.xml in the current directory will be used automatically. If it is needed to explicitly specify the buildfile (because it's name isn't build.xml for example), you have to specify the buildfile with the '-f'-option: 'ant -verbose -f build.xml'. I hope this helps.