Apache Ant is java based library and command line tool. Ant
drive application using build xml file, control behavior of build, compile and
run targets define in build xml file.
Basically ant build is a java based application. It can be Also build non java applications such as C,
C++, PHP, Python etc by passing their compile/interpreter. Ant is written in
java so ant user can be develop their own library. Ant is easy to use it does
not impose coding convention or directory layouts to the java projects.
Ant use a configuration xml file, default name of file is
build.xml. ant directly call target define in build file. Targets can be define
their dependencies, ant will automatically execute dependent target.
Here is a sample of ant buid.xml file.
Here is a sample of ant buid.xml file.