Anyone ever used/installed Ant?

ikthius · 12-08-2005, 12:51

Hey there,

I am currently going through a booked called agile java, and in it it uses a program called Ant.

I have heard of it, but never used it.

the book says to follow the instructions on how to install it, but I find that this is not that clear.

has anyone every installed Ant? if so, how did you do it?

Please, if it is possible, a complete breakdown, as I am a bit dubious about setting variables in the environment, as these are not precisely defined.

I feel the installation instructions were made for people that already used Ant.

ik

p.s. I am currently backing up my data that I want to keep, before I do this, so that I do not loose anything. using nero backitup, I have only 43% done and it has been going for 55mins, how long does it take to back up data?

philip.j.fry · 12-08-2005, 13:11

http://ant.apache.org/manual/index.html

Try not to get too worried over it, it's just like installing any other program.

ikthius · 12-08-2005, 13:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by philip.j.fry

http://ant.apache.org/manual/index.html

Try not to get too worried over it, it's just like installing any other program.

as I said, it is not very clear.

Setup

Before you can run ant there is some additional set up you will need to do:

Add the bin directory to your path.
Set the ANT_HOME environment variable to the directory where you installed Ant. On some operating systems the ant wrapper scripts can guess ANT_HOME (Unix dialects and Windows NT/2000) - but it is better to not rely on this behavior.
Optionally, set the JAVA_HOME environment variable (see the Advanced section below). This should be set to the directory where your JDK is installed.

1: I take it this is the bin for the ant prog, in the normal path, but not classpath?
2: is this a new variable which I name as ANT_HOME?
3: I have my java set up nicely at the moment, and the classpaths are fine, but do I need to make a new variable with JAVA_HOME?

I can't see it being that easy, to be honest

another thing, it goes on to building ant, do I have to build it as well?

ik

EDIT:
I done this, but it still does not recognise Ant.

I have downloaded a zip file for my windows machine, and extracted the zip file to a directory called ant in C:
C:\ant

I have appended my classpath to include C:\ant\apache-ant-1.6.5\lib\ant.jar;

then I appended my path with C:\ant\apache-ant-1.6.5\bin;

I then made a new variable and called it ANT_HOME and set the environment as C:\ant\apache-ant-1.6.5

Gareth · 12-08-2005, 16:32

Not used ant for a very, very long time, so can't remember installing it but from your last post, I'd suggest pointing your ANT_HOME variable to c:\ant
__________________

edit: just checked http://ant.apache.org/manual/index.html and saw this...

Quote:

Windows and OS/2
Assume Ant is installed in c:\ant\. The following sets up the environment:

set ANT_HOME=c:\ant
set JAVA_HOME=c:\jdk1.2.2
set PATH=%PATH%;%ANT_HOME%\bin

__________________

...although re-reading your post, am I right in thinking that c:\ant just contains a sub-directory called apache-ant-1.6.5 ? Maybe it's falling over cause of the directory name... try having it in c:\ant instead of c:\ant\apache-ant-1.6.5 and see if that makes any difference.

ikthius · 12-08-2005, 16:43

I eventually got it, it was hard to understand, but I eventually got it to work, although build.xml does not exist after typing ant at the c:\ prompt

I know that this is because I have not made the xml file yet.

I have only spent over the last 7 hours trying to get this done, and I have wasted a day doing this than doing my java.

How fun.

thanks guys

ik

greencreeper · 12-08-2005, 18:30

Welcome to open source

It's always this bad - hours wasted trying to fathom instructions written by blokes with beards and brown trousers. Nightmare. It could be worse though - it could be Microsoft

ikthius · 12-08-2005, 18:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by greencreeper

Welcome to open source

It's always this bad - hours wasted trying to fathom instructions written by blokes with beards and brown trousers. Nightmare. It could be worse though - it could be Microsoft

what's wrong with brown trousers? and beards, well depending on the size of the facila hair growth.

If I made a program that is open source, I would give a comprehensible instruction page with it, on how to install it, and what else you need, and how to install that.

simply because I would like everyone to have a chance to use it from computer experts to novices.

all it takes is a few screen shots of what is meant in the install pages.

ik

greencreeper · 12-08-2005, 19:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikthius

what's wrong with brown trousers? and beards, well depending on the size of the facila hair growth

Nothing

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikthius

If I made a program that is open source, I would give a comprehensible instruction page with it, on how to install it, and what else you need, and how to install that.

The open source programmers take the attitude that they write the software and the users write the manuals. I've criticised them for it in mailing lists and got nowhere. Makes little sense to me neither to write a program then leave users to work out how to use it, but I'm not a member of the elite