How To Run Ant From An Ant Script

The simplest and best way to invoke ant from within an ant build script is to use the core ant task provided for that purpose.

Typical examples of usage:

 <ant antfile="subproject/subbuild.xml" target="compile"/>

 <ant dir="subproject"/>

However, if you want to run ant in a way not supported by the core ant task, such as to pass non-standard command line parameters, one can use the core java task instead:

 <java classname="org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher">
   <classpath path="${java.class.path}"/>
   <arg value="-projecthelp"/>
 </java>

or

 <java dir=".." classname="org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher" fork="true" failonerror="true">
   <classpath path="${java.class.path}"/>
   <arg value="-projecthelp"/>
 </java>

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I found this useful for doing TestDrivenDevelopmentInAnt? -- writing ant scripts that test other ant scripts.

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CategoryAnt