Ant migration tool destructive package how to#
Ant migration tool destructive package code#

Goal customization is very hard, so writing custom build scripts is a lot harder to do, compared with Ant.Īlthough Maven has made some serious improvements regarding making application's build processes easier and more standardized, it still comes with a price due to being a lot less flexible than Ant. Maven's strict conventions come with the price of being a lot less flexible than Ant.

However, though more standardized than Ant files, Maven configuration files still tend to get big and cumbersome. Maven became very popular since build files were now standardized and it took significantly less time to maintain build files, comparing to Ant. Additionally, for a detailed Maven overview, have a look at this core guide on Maven, where some Maven's key features are explored.

Ant migration tool destructive package how to#

There is also an existing article on how to create an executable JAR using different Maven plugins. We'll execute this plugin and copy dependencies to the target/dependencies folder. This plugin will be executed in a package phase, so if we run: mvn package To show this plugin in action, let's include this plugin in our pom.xml file and configure an output directory for our dependencies: One of the available plugins is Apache Maven Dependency Plugin which has a copy-dependencies goal that will copy our dependencies to a specified directory. Maven supports a wide range of available plugins, and each of them can be additionally configured.

Ant migration tool destructive package code#

Instead, we can simply call Maven's built-in commands.įor example, we can compile the code by running: mvn compileĪt its core, as noted on official pages, Maven can be considered a plugin execution framework, since all work is done by plugins. However, now the project structure has been standardized as well and conforms to the Maven conventions: +-srcĪs opposed to Ant, there is no need to define each of the phases in the build process manually. Here's an example of a pom.xml file for the same simple Java project with the HelloWorld main class from before: Additionally, Maven also prescribes a strict project structure, while Ant provides flexibility there as well. Maven's configuration file, containing build and dependency management instructions, is by convention called pom.xml. Another positive aspect of Maven was that it provided built-in support for dependency management. Simply put, Maven allows us to focus on what our build should do, and gives us the framework to do it. While Ant gives flexibility and requires everything to be written from scratch, Maven relies on conventions and provides predefined commands (goals). However, the initial Ant limitations due to not having built-in support for dependency management and frustrations when working with unmanagable XML build files led to the creation of Maven. It's integrated with Apache Ant, and it follows the same design principles. However, as dependency management became a must in the later years, Apache Ivy was developed as a sub-project of the Apache Ant project. It'll likely take some time to get accustomed to an unfamiliar Ant file, which is a disadvantage compared to the other, newer tools.Īt first, Ant had no built-in support for dependency management. Since there are no conventions, just knowing Ant doesn't mean we'll quickly understand any Ant build file. Consequently, this means that Ant requires developers to write all the commands by themselves, which sometimes leads to huge XML build files that are hard to maintain. Ant doesn't impose any coding conventions or project structures. The main benefit of Ant is its flexibility. After that, the target compile will recreate the directory and compile the src folder into it. This will trigger the target clean first which will delete the “classes” directory.

For example, we can compile the code by running: ant compile This build file defines four targets: clean, compile, jar and run. Here is an example of a build.xml file for a simple Java project with the HelloWorld main class: Ant build files are written in XML, and by convention, they're called build.xml.ĭifferent phases of a build process are called “targets”.

In many aspects, Ant is very similar to Make, and it's simple enough so anyone can start using it without any particular prerequisites.