ANT : 'ZIP' Task - how to prevent trailing slashes on ZIP entries? - ant

I am using ANT to both unzip and then re-zip a "Open Packaging Convention" file.
It happens to be an EXCEL (*.xlsx) file: and the process works; but it seems that the ANT 'zip' task is creating the ZIP slightly differently that how it was created by EXCEL itself.
The ZIP entries created appear to have trailing slash characters.
I discovered this when opening the resultant ZIP with Apache POI (which has some unit-tests to detect and complain about this situation) with DEBUG logging on.
Here's an example of the WARNING log messages from Apache POI when re-opening up the re-zipped file:
2015-10-29 14:06:11 WARN ZipPackage:135 - Entry xl/worksheets/_rels/ is not valid, so this part won't be add to the package.
org.apache.poi.openxml4j.exceptions.InvalidFormatException: A part name shall not have a forward slash as the last character [M1.5]: /xl/worksheets/_rels/
Is there a way of avoiding this (annoying, but not critical) issue when using Ant ?
I'm running this on a Windows platform.
Here's my (simplified) 'build.xml' file.
<project name="repackage" default="repackage" basedir=".">
<property name="src" location="src"/>
<property name="build" location="build"/>
<property name="temp" location="temp"/>
<property name="extract" location="${temp}\extract"/>
<property name="inputfile" value="original.xlsx"/>
<target name="cleantemp">
<delete includeemptydirs="true">
<fileset dir="${temp}" includes="**/*"/>
</delete>
<mkdir dir="${extract}"/>
</target>
<target name="extract" depends="cleantemp">
<unzip src="${src}/${inputfile}" dest="${extract}"/>
</target>
<target name="reassemble" depends="extract">
<zip destfile="${build}/repair.xlsx" basedir="${extract}"/>
</target>
<target name="repackage" depends="reassemble">
</target>
</project>

It looks as if the parser you use didn't like directory entries (which end in a /). Use filesonly="true" in your <zip> task.

Related

is there a way to make a jar with the Eclipse generated ant script?

To my surprise the build.xml file generated by Eclipse (Neon) for Java has no element containing an invocation of a jar task. As often is the case with code generation I think you have to use it and make no edits so that you can regenerate - or - avoid code generation completely. A comment in the generated file suggests it might be possible to avoid edits by extending the capabilities by importing.
<!-- 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 <?eclipse.ant.import?>
as the first entry and export the buildfile again. -->
I thought I would be able to use the <?eclipse.ant.import?> element in an second file called export.xml. In ant scripting there is supposed to be one project per buildfile so now there is a second project with a dependency on a target in the first project.
Regenerating build.xml reveals that it contains an "import" as expected.
<import file="export.xml"/>
Unfortunately this does not work. Running ant, which I do from the command line, just seems to result in the export/jar project being ignored.
The generated script with the import element (nested on the 7th line)...
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<project basedir="." default="build" name="ohana1">
<property environment="env"/>
<property name="debuglevel" value="source,lines,vars"/>
<property name="target" value="1.8"/>
<property name="source" value="1.8"/>
<import file="export.xml"/>
<path id="ohana1.classpath">
<pathelement location="bin"/>
<pathelement location="../export/ohana1/commons-collections-3.2.1.jar"/>
</path>
<target name="init">
<mkdir dir="bin"/>
<copy includeemptydirs="false" todir="bin">
<fileset dir="src">
<exclude name="**/*.launch"/>
<exclude name="**/*.java"/>
</fileset>
</copy>
</target>
<target name="clean">
<delete dir="bin"/>
</target>
<target depends="clean" name="cleanall"/>
<target depends="build-subprojects,build-project" name="build"/>
<target name="build-subprojects"/>
<target depends="init" name="build-project">
<echo message="${ant.project.name}: ${ant.file}"/>
<javac debug="true" debuglevel="${debuglevel}" destdir="bin" includeantruntime="false" source="${source}" target="${target}">
<src path="src"/>
<classpath refid="ohana1.classpath"/>
</javac>
</target>
<target description="Build all projects which reference this project. Useful to propagate changes." name="build-refprojects"/>
<target description="copy Eclipse compiler jars to ant lib directory" name="init-eclipse-compiler">
<copy todir="${ant.library.dir}">
<fileset dir="${ECLIPSE_HOME}/plugins" includes="org.eclipse.jdt.core_*.jar"/>
</copy>
<unzip dest="${ant.library.dir}">
<patternset includes="jdtCompilerAdapter.jar"/>
<fileset dir="${ECLIPSE_HOME}/plugins" includes="org.eclipse.jdt.core_*.jar"/>
</unzip>
</target>
<target description="compile project with Eclipse compiler" name="build-eclipse-compiler">
<property name="build.compiler" value="org.eclipse.jdt.core.JDTCompilerAdapter"/>
<antcall target="build"/>
</target>
</project>
The export.xml file meant to make a jar...
<?eclipse.ant.import?>
<project basedir="." default="export" name="ohana1Export">
<target depends="build,make-jar" name="export"/>
<target name="make-jar">
<jar destfile="../export/ohana1/${ant.project.name}.jar" basedir="bin"/>
</target>
</project>
Note that the Eclipse Ant editor complains about this export.xml file because the target named build, which is a dependency, does not exist in this project/buildfile. The build target is in the generated build.xml. That error might be coming from a "dumb" editor so I went ahead to do a run of ant. Invoking ant from the command line I find that there is no jar file made.
Should I conclude that Eclipse's ant script generator is useless if you need to export a .jar file and that a human should maintain the ant script that meets all the requirements?
Yes, in my opinion the exported build.xml is useless, as of Eclipse Neon, if the intention is to make a .jar.
Specifically do the following.
Manually write the trivial ant script that exports a .jar. The link at the bottom of this post has verbatim text on what the script might look like. You can use the built-in Xml Editor via New > Other > XML > XML File to create this new file which might be called makeJar.xml and save it. If the icon shown in the Package Explorer is still a plain XML file icon refreshing the project may change the icon to an Ant file icon. In the future, you can use Open With to get the Ant Editor instead of the XML Editor. This script will replace the manual exporting of a .jar that the user would otherwise perform via Eclipse.
This script can be added to Project > Properties > Builders. It would be placed second in the list of Builders. First in the list of Builders is the Java Builder which should already exist. When an Eclipse build is invoked the entire list of Builders will be processed in the order shown in the list of Builders. Thus not only will .class files be generated but also the .jar.
What is achieved is greater automation since the .class generation and .jar generation are now integrated, which arguably was the point of using the exported build.xml in a failed attempt to generate the .jar.
Here is the dialog at Project > Properties > Builders that you can use to create a new Builder. Select New then select Ant Builder. I gave the name makeJar to the new Builder.
Here is the dialog for the new Ant Builder that will allow you to browse to your buildfile which is your manually written Ant script that creates a .jar file. In this example the script is makeJar.xml. It also allows you to browse to the base directory to be used when the script is run.
After setting up the new Builder, a project "clean" or project "build" will create .class files and also the .jar.
Eclipse's documentation on this subject is at the link. Note that it seems impossible to link the exact page that contains the instructions so you have to browse down the documentation tree to the section about "Ant buildfiles as project builders".
Link to Eclipse and Ant

If there is no properties file declared, what does the $ do in an Ant build file?

Essentially, I am wondering how ant knows that $ means to pull from the properties file.. what if there was no properties file named?
Take example this build file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="Hello World Project" default="info">
<property file="build.properties"/>
<fileset dir="${build.dir}" >
<include name="**/*.java"/>
</fileset>
<target name="info">
<echo>${src}</echo>
</target>
</project>
I know that the $ sign is referencing a property in the build.properties file, however what if there is no properties file, what does the $ sign do in a regular Ant compilation?
Ant leaves references to non-existent properties unchanged. For example, the following Ant script...
<project name="ant-echo-missing-property" default="run">
<target name="run">
<property file="non-existent-file.properties"/>
<echo>${missing-property}</echo>
</target>
</project>
...outputs...
run:
[echo] ${missing-property}

ANT: ways to include libraries and license issues

I have been trying to use Ant to compile and ready a project for distribution. I have encountered several problems along the way that I have been finally able to solve but the solution leaves me very unsatisfied. First, let me explain the set-up of the project and its dependencies.
I have a project, lets call it Primary which depends on a couple of libraries such as the fantastic Guava. It also depends on another project of mine, lets call it Secondary. The Secondary project also features some dependencies, for example, JDOM2. I have referenced the Jar I build with Ant in Primary.
Let me give you the interesting bits of the build.xml so you can get a picture of what I am doing:
<project name="Primary" default="all" basedir=".">
<property name='build' location='dist' />
<property name='application.version' value='1.0'/>
<property name='application.name' value='Primary'/>
<property name='distribution' value='${application.name}-${application.version}'/>
<path id='compile.classpath'>
<fileset dir='libs'>
<include name='*.jar'/>
</fileset>
</path>
<target name='compile' description='Compile source files.'>
<javac includeantruntime="false" srcdir="src" destdir="bin">
<classpath refid='compile.classpath'/>
</javac>
<target>
<target name='jar' description='Create a jar file for distribution.' depends="compile">
<jar destfile='${build}/${distribution}.jar'>
<fileset dir="bin"/>
<zipgroupfileset dir="libs" includes="*.jar"/>
</jar>
</target>
The Secodnary project's build.xml is nearly identical except that it features a manifest as it needs to run:
<target name='jar' description='Create a jar file for distribution.' depends="compile">
<jar destfile='${dist}/${distribution}.jar' basedir="${build}" >
<fileset dir="${build}"/>
<zipgroupfileset dir="libs" includes="*.jar"/>
<manifest>
<attribute name="Main-Class" value="lu.tudor.ssi.kiss.climate.ClimateChange"/>
</manifest>
</jar>
</target>
After I got it working, trying for many hours to not include that dependencies as class files but as Jars, I don't have the time or insight to go back and try to figure out what I did wrong. Furthermore, I believe that including these libraries as class files is bad practice as it could give rise to licensing issues while not packaging them and merely including them in a directory along the build Jar would most probably not (And if it would you could choose not to distribute them yourself).
I think my inability to correctly assemble the class path, I always received NoClassDefFoundError for classes or libraries in the Primary project when launching Second's Jar, is that I am not very experienced with Ant. Would I require to specify a class path for both projects? Specifying the class path as . should have allowed me to simply add all dependencies to the same folder as Secondary's Jar, should it not?
You may use the MANIFEST.MF "Class-Path: " to cross-reference your jars.
If they are all in the same directory this will probably work as follows (using it in both projects!):
<target name='jar' description='Create a jar file for distribution.' depends="compile">
<pathconvert property="manifest.classpath" pathsep=" ">
<path refid="compile.classpath" />
<flattenmapper />
</pathconvert>
<jar destfile='${build}/${distribution}.jar'>
<fileset dir="bin"/>
<manifest>
<attribute name="Class-Path" value="${manifest.classpath}"/>
</manifest>
</jar>
</target>
This way you can tell the java runtime environment that your jar needs others to work, expecting them to be in the same directory as the jar you are trying to run.
As a result your primary.jar should have secondary.jar in it's classpath and secondary.jar should have guava.jar in it's classpath.
Another way to create the string may be ants manifestclasspath task (https://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/manifestclasspath.html) that can handle subdirectories.
If you are goin to use more and more libraries, you may want to have a closer look at ivy or even maven.

Making jUnit output info and compile to /build folder

I have the following Ant buildfile:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- the value of the default attr must be one of the targets. -->
<project name="Money" default="build-source" basedir=".">
<description>The Money project build file.</description>
<property name="src" location="."/>
<property name="build" location="build"/>
<property name="junit" location="lib/junit-4.9b3.jar"/>
<path id="_classpath">
<pathelement path="${junit}"/>
<pathelement path="${build}"/>
</path>
<target name="prepare">
<mkdir dir="${build}"/>
</target>
<target name="build-source" depends="prepare"
description="compile the source ">
<javac srcdir="${src}" destdir="${build}">
<classpath refid="_classpath"/>
</javac>
</target>
<target name="run" depends="build-source">
<junit printsummary="on" showoutput="on">
<test name="money.MoneyTest"/>
<classpath refid="_classpath"/>
</junit>
</target>
</project>
It's pretty basic - I'm just trying to get this thing to run properly. What I don't get is: 1) Why does it output the compiled files to a /build/money directory? I want the output directory to be just /build, given this directory structure for my files:
build/
build.xml
lib/
src/
test/
2) When there are tests that don't pass, it says "Test money.MoneyTest FAILED". I'd like it to output info about the failure, expected / actual values, line number, etc.
I can't figure this out by staring at the buildfile above. Any advice?
It outputs the compiled files under build, creating a directory structure that corresponds to the layout of your packages.
Since you put your classes in the money package, the output will be under build/money. If you put your classes under a org.example.foo package, your output would be in the build/org/example/foo directory.
To have your .class files in build, you would have to use the default package.
Edit
I assume your source files have a package money; declaration, as in:
package money;
public class MoneyTest {
...
}
If you add a <formatter> element, detailed reports about test failures will be written to an output file (by default, named TEST-name). See also the Ant Junit Task Documentation.
<junit printsummary="withOutAndErr" showoutput="on">
<formatter type="plain"/>
<test name="money.MoneyTest"/>
<classpath refid="_classpath"/>
</junit>
I have not found a way to directly print the failed tests reports to standard output.

Creating an ear-File with ant

I am new to ant i referred many sites , i need to build.xml for my project which consists
of two modules i have application.xml file which represents corresponding war file
so my question is it sufficient to add the application.xml file
<ear destfile="${dist.dir}/${ant.project.name}.ear" appxml="${conf.dir}/application.xml">
<metainf dir="${build.dir}/META-INF"/>
<fileset dir="${dist.dir}" includes="*.jar,*.war"/>
</ear>
whether this will refer the corresponding war files or i need to compile the whole scenario please let me know. how solve this.
I'm not 100% sure what you're asking.
In order to use the <ear> task, you already need to have compiled the required jars and wars.
If those jars and wars have already been built, you simply refer to them in your <ear> task as you did in your example. The application.xml must already exist before you build your ear. The application.xml doesn't build the jars and wars, you have to do that.
If you haven't already built the wars and jars, you need to do that first. A general outline of a build.xml looks something like this:
<project name="foo" basedir="." default="package">
<!-- Some standard properties you've defined -->
<property name="target.dir" value="${basedir}/target"/>
<property name="xxx" value="yyy"/>
<property name="xxx" value="yyy"/>
<property name="xxx" value="yyy"/>
<!-- Compile properties that allow overrides -->
<property name="javac.nowarn" value="false"/>
<property name="javac.listfiles" value="false"/>
<property name="javac.srcdir" value="source"/>
<property name="javac.distdir" value="${target.dir}/classes"/>
<target name="clean"
description="cleans everything nice and shiny">
<delete dir="${target.dir}"/>
</target>
<target name="compile"
description="Compiles everything">
<mkdir dir="${javac.distdir}"/>
<javac srcdir="${javac.srcdir}"
destdir="${javac.destdir}"
[...]
[...]/>
</target>
<target name="package.jar"
depends="compile"
description="Package jarfile">
<jar destfile="${target.dir}/jarname.jar"
[...]
[...]/>
</target>
<target name="package.jar2"
depends="compile"
description="Package jarfile">
<jar destfile="${target.dir}/jarname2.jar"
[...]
[...]/>
</target>
<target name="package.war"
depends="compile"
description="Package jarfile">
<war destfile="${target.dir}/jarname.jar"
[...]
[...]/>
</target>
<target name="package"
depends="package.jar"
description="Make the ear">
<ear destfile="${target.dir}/earfile.ear"
[...]/>
</target>
</project>
Basically, it consists of a bunch of targets and each target does one task. You can have targets depend upon other targets. For example, this particular build.xml will automatically run the package task. The package task depends upon the package.jar task which depends upon the compile task. Thus, the build.xml file will first call compile, then package.jar, then package.
The important thing to remember is that you don't specify the order of the events. You let Ant figure that out, and you let Ant figure out what you need to do. Let's say you've modified a java source file. Ant knows that it has to recompile only that one file. It also knows that it might have to rebuild the jarfile that contains that classfile. And, it then knows it has to rebuild the ear. Most tasks can figure it out on their own, and you don't do a clean for each build. (You notice that the clean target isn't called by package or compile. You have to call it manually).
The only other thing I recommend is that you try to keep your work area clean. Any files you create should be put into the ${target.dir} directory. That way, when you do a clean, you only have to delete that one directory.
I hope this answer your question.

Resources