Debugging Ant Scripts

Single-step debugging of ApacheAnt scripts is supported in EclipseIde and NetBeans IDE. (But not IntellijIdea.)

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EclipseIde:

How To:

• Set breakpoints by double-clicking on the left margin or '<right-click> + "Toggle Breakpoint"' in your ant build.xml file -- just like you would with Java code.
• In 'Outline' or 'Ant' views, right-click on a target and select 'Run As -> Ant Build' (Alt+Shift+X, Q).
• It's that easy!

See "External Tools Configurations" dialog to edit ant runs you've done.

• 'Run -> External Tools -> External Tools Configurations...'
• (or) Right-click on an ant build file, and select 'Run As -> External Tools Configurations...'

Articles:

• http://eclipsewiki.editme.com/ANTFaq - includes "How do I run Ant from Eclipse?" and "How to debug a custom ant task" (Answer: via remote debugging)
• IBM DeveloperWorks tutorial: "Make Ant easy with Eclipse" (requires free registration) - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/os-dw-os-ecl-easyant.html
• Debugging Java code implementing custom ant tasks: http://www.arcaner.com/2007/03/22/debugging-eclipses-pde-build/

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NetBeans:

• Ant Debugger Module: http://ant.netbeans.org/debugger.html

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CategoryAnt