Why does ant compile all classes each run?

Question

I\'m more accustomed to make, so I\'m confused why ant recompiles classes when the source hasn\'t been changed. I\'ve read that there is a requirement to recompile in some cases

Answer 1

In my experience the javac target will not compile all the classes, only the ones in need of it, even without the includeDestClasses attribute. In fact I usually set up two (or more) compile targets, one that does a complete compile (forced by deleting the output directory) and one that does a quick updating compile, much like your javac line. Are you sure that one of your dependencies isn't deleting the output directory?