Ant build tool installation not working properly!

Question

i have downloaded the Ant distribution from the Ant web site. apache-ant-1.7.0 and set environment variable specifying the location of the Ant installationas ANT_HOME = C:\\

Answer 1

Better use batch or shell scripts to start your ant files, f.e. =

windows

  set JAVA_HOME=C:\java\jdk\1.6.0_xx
  set ANT_HOME=C:\ant
  set ANT_ARGS=-lib C:\ant_xtralibs;C:\ant_testlibs
  set PATH=%PATH%;%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%ANT_HOME%\bin;C:\cvsnt

  :: default
  call ant -f %1

  :: debug
  ::call ant -debug -f %1
  ...

unix - don't forget the quotationmarks on the ANT_ARGS line !

  ...
  ANT_ARGS="-lib /usr/local/ant_xtralibs:/usr/local/ant_testlibs"
  export ANT_ARGS
  ...

Some advantages of starting ant like that :

• ANT_ARGS is a special environment variable. Its content is automatically added to the invocation of ant.

• you may use your own ant settings on a machine where you have no admin rights

• using a separate folder for your ant addon libs and load via -lib option keeps your ant installation clean and avoids polluting the %ANT_HOME%/lib folder