I have the following war task in my build.xml and even though needxmlfile is set to false, Ant (version 1.8.2) complains when the web.xml file does not exist ("BUILD FAILED ... Deployment descriptor: /home/.../web/WEB-INF/web.xml does not exist")
What am I missing?
<target name="war" depends="build">
<mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/>
<war
needxmlfile="false"
basedir="${webroot.dir}"
warfile="${build.dir}/${project.distname}.war"
webxml="${webinf.dir}/web.xml">
<exclude name="WEB-INF/${build.dir}/**"/>
<exclude name="WEB-INF/src/**"/>
<exclude name="WEB-INF/web.xml"/>
</war>
</target>
The ANT documentation states that the webxml attribute is mandatory unless the needxmlfile attribute is set to true
Try this and use a fileset to pull in the optional web.xml file.
#O'Connor: thanks for the hint for using a fileset to pull the web.xml. However I am not sure you are correct about the needxmlfile set to true (at least in my experimentation I witnessed the opposite of what you describe). In any case, in the end I realized that not even the fileset is necessary since the war Ant task apparently packages everything under the basedir (unless explicitly excluded) so I am now using the following war task that works whether a web.xml file is present or not:
<target name="war" depends="build">
<mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/>
<war
needxmlfile="false"
basedir="${webroot.dir}"
destfile="${build.dir}/${project.distname}.war">
<exclude name="WEB-INF/${build.dir}/**"/>
<exclude name="WEB-INF/src/**"/>
</war>
</target>
Setting needxmlfile to "true" causes Ant to complain if no web.xml file can be found during "waring".
Related
I have been trying to use Ant to compile and ready a project for distribution. I have encountered several problems along the way that I have been finally able to solve but the solution leaves me very unsatisfied. First, let me explain the set-up of the project and its dependencies.
I have a project, lets call it Primary which depends on a couple of libraries such as the fantastic Guava. It also depends on another project of mine, lets call it Secondary. The Secondary project also features some dependencies, for example, JDOM2. I have referenced the Jar I build with Ant in Primary.
Let me give you the interesting bits of the build.xml so you can get a picture of what I am doing:
<project name="Primary" default="all" basedir=".">
<property name='build' location='dist' />
<property name='application.version' value='1.0'/>
<property name='application.name' value='Primary'/>
<property name='distribution' value='${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.
I have a build.xml file that includes a common.xml file that defines some refid values. However, my task cannot see the refid value. I have not been able to find a solution on the web and am looking for some help.
I call the genbeans target in the build.xml file. It fails on the xmlbean taskdef with the message Reference my_classpath_jars not found.
build.xml
----------------------------
[includes common.xml]
**my_classpath_jars fails to be seen at this point - defined in common.xml**
<taskdef name="xmlbean" classname="org.apache.xmlbeans.impl.tool.XMLBean">
<classpath refid="my_classpath_jars"/>
</taskdef>
<!-- Generate the XMLBeans java code from our source XSD file(s) -->
<target name="genbeans" description="Generate XML Bean files" depends="build_my_jar_cpath">
<mkdir dir="${lib}"/>
<xmlbean destfile="${lib}/${appname}Beans.jar" failonerror="true">
<classpath refid="my_classpath_jars"/>
<fileset dir="src/XSD Files" includes="*.xsd, *.wsdl"/>
</xmlbean>
</target>
common.xml
-----------------------------
<target name="build_my_jar_cpath">
<path id="my_classpath_jars">
<fileset dir="${jardir}" includes="**/*.jar" />
</path>
<pathconvert pathsep="${path.separator}" property="myjar.clpath" refid="my_classpath_jars"/>
</target>
When in doubt, use the ant -d switch when calling your target. You'll see a ton of output. Save it to a file and parse through it.
Do that, and the first thing you'll notice in the output is that it's defining your taskdefbefore you have defined your my_classpath_jars. That my_classpath_jars refid is only set when you call that greenbeans target. Your <taskdef> is executed before any of your targets are called.
Either take the definition of my_classpath_jars out of the target greenbeans, or put your <taskdef> in there.
I have an ant task that executes some command on a list of files.
I would like, on consecutive builds, to avoid from re-running the command on files that have passed the command with success and haven't changed.
For example: (here the command is xmllint)
<target name="xmllint-files">
<apply executable="xmllint">
<srcfile/>
<fileset dir="." includes="*.xml">
<modified/>
</fileset>
</apply>
</target>
The problem is that even the files where xmlint fails are considered as modified and therefore xmllint will not be re-run on them on consecutive builds. Obviously, this is not the desired behavior.
Two remarks:
I am looking for a general solution and not only a solution for xmllint.
I want to solve the problem totally inside ant without creating
external scripts.
This code uses the Groovy ANT task to do the following:
Implement a custom groovy selector, selecting the XML files to be processed based on a MD5 checksum check.
Invoke xmllint on each file and store it's checksum upon successful completion (This prevents re-execution of xmllint unless the file's contents are changed.
Example:
<project name="demo" default="xmllint">
<!--
======================
Groovy task dependency
======================
-->
<path id="build.path">
<pathelement location="jars/groovy-all-1.8.6.jar"/>
</path>
<taskdef name="groovy" classname="org.codehaus.groovy.ant.Groovy" classpathref="build.path"/>
<!--
==============================================
Select files to be processed
MD5 checksums located in "checksums" directory
==============================================
-->
<target name="select-files">
<fileset id="unprocessedfiles" dir=".">
<include name="*.xml"/>
<exclude name="build.xml"/>
<scriptselector language="groovy" classpathref="build.path">
def ant = new AntBuilder()
ant.checksum(file:filename, toDir:"checksums", verifyProperty:"isMD5ok")
self.selected = (ant.project.properties.isMD5ok == "false") ? true : false
</scriptselector>
</fileset>
</target>
<!--
=============================================================
Process each file
Checksum is saved upon command success, prevents reprocessing
=============================================================
-->
<target name="xmllint" depends="select-files">
<groovy>
project.references.unprocessedfiles.each { file ->
ant.exec(executable:"xmllint", resultproperty:"cmdExit") {
arg(value:file)
}
if (properties.cmdExit == "0") {
ant.checksum(file:file.toString(), toDir:"checksums")
}
}
</groovy>
</target>
</project>
Note:
This complex requirement cannot be implemented using the original apply ANT task. One call to xmllint command might succeed whereas another might fail.
A subdirectory called "checksums" is created to store the MD5 checksum files.
The groovy jar can be downloaded from Maven Central
Original answer
Use the ANT modified selector
<project name="demo" default="xmllint">
<target name="xmllint">
<apply executable="xmllint">
<srcfile/>
<fileset dir="." includes="*.xml">
<modified/>
</fileset>
</apply>
</target>
</project>
A property file called "cache.properties" will be created in the build directory. It records file digests, used determine if the file has been changed since the last build run.
I need to write an ant task to selectively delete files.
In a directory, I have the following jars:
acme.jar
acme-201105251330.jar
I want to delete acme.jar because acme-*.jar exists.
Here's what I've tried:
<target name="-check-use-file">
<available property="file.exists">
<filepath> <fileset dir=".">
<include name="./test-*.jar"/> </fileset>
</filepath>
</available>
</target>
<target name="use-file" depends="-check-use-file" if="file.exists">
<!-- do something requiring that file... -->
</target>
Thanks
Have a look at If/Unless Attributes, examples given there seem to be exactly what you are looking for.
I am trying to create a war file out of an eclipse project using ant
The responsible ant target looks like this
<target name="jar" depends="build" description="Erzeugt das WAR File">
<war destfile="${project.dir.dist}/xyz.jar" webxml="${basedir}/WebRoot/WEB-INF/web.xml" duplicate="fail" basedir="${basedir}">
<lib dir="${project.dir.dist}" excludesfile="${project.dir.dist}/xyz.jar" />
<classes dir="${project.dir.bin}" />
<webinf dir="${basedir}/WebRoot/WEB-INF" excludes="*.class" />
<metainf dir="${basedir}/WebRoot/META-INF" />
</war>
</target>
And it fails with the following error:
F:\eclipse_workspaces\skyeye\railWeb\build.xml:35: Syntax error in property: ??? ???i8?
Google search turned up only this: http://209.85.135.132/search?q=cache:OrmNOY9EJd0J:teamcity.jetbrains.com/viewLog.html%3Bjsessionid%3D114D52086BAE423B2F69A99B4CFACACD%3FbuildId%3D29573%26tab%3DbuildChangesDiv%26buildTypeId%3Dbt134+ant+war+task+%22Syntax+error+in+property%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a
Can anybody explain, what the heck is going on?
The propblem was that I used 'excludesFile' assuming it would exclude a single file. Instead ANT tried to parse it as an property file which gets difficult since it actually was a jar file.
The correct way to exclude a jar file is given in the documentation. If anyone face same issue, they can refer to this link.
This example is taken from the documentation, here we are removing jdbc1.jar from lib
Assume the following structure in the project's base directory:
thirdparty/libs/jdbc1.jar
thirdparty/libs/jdbc2.jar
build/main/com/myco/myapp/Servlet.class
src/metadata/myapp.xml
src/html/myapp/index.html
src/jsp/myapp/front.jsp
src/graphics/images/gifs/small/logo.gif
src/graphics/images/gifs/large/logo.gif
then the war file myapp.war created with
<war destfile="myapp.war" webxml="src/metadata/myapp.xml">
<fileset dir="src/html/myapp"/>
<fileset dir="src/jsp/myapp"/>
<lib dir="thirdparty/libs">
<exclude name="jdbc1.jar"/>
</lib>
<classes dir="build/main"/>
<zipfileset dir="src/graphics/images/gifs"
prefix="images"/>
</war>
will consist of
WEB-INF/web.xml
WEB-INF/lib/jdbc2.jar
WEB-INF/classes/com/myco/myapp/Servlet.class
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
index.html
front.jsp
images/small/logo.gif
images/large/logo.gif