| 1 |
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| 2 | A N T
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| 3 |
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| 4 |
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| 5 | What is it?
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| 6 | -----------
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| 7 |
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| 8 | Ant is a Java based build tool. In theory it is kind of like "make"
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| 9 | without makes wrinkles and with the full portability of pure java code.
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| 10 |
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| 11 |
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| 12 | Why?
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| 13 | ----
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| 14 |
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| 15 | Why another build tool when there is already make, gnumake, nmake, jam,
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| 16 | and others? Because all of those tools have limitations that its original
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| 17 | author couldn't live with when developing software across multiple platforms.
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| 18 |
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| 19 | Make-like tools are inherently shell based. They evaluate a set of
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| 20 | dependencies and then execute commands not unlike what you would issue on a
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| 21 | shell. This means that you can easily extend these tools by using or writing
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| 22 | any program for the OS that you are working on. However, this also means that
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| 23 | you limit yourself to the OS, or at least the OS type such as Unix, that you
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| 24 | are working on.
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| 25 |
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| 26 | Makefiles are inherently evil as well. Anybody who has worked on them for any
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| 27 | time has run into the dreaded tab problem. "Is my command not executing
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| 28 | because I have a space in front of my tab!!!" said the original author of Ant
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| 29 | way too many times. Tools like Jam took care of this to a great degree, but
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| 30 | still use yet another format to use and remember.
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| 31 |
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| 32 | Ant is different. Instead a model where it is extended with shell based
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| 33 | commands, it is extended using Java classes. Instead of writing shell
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| 34 | commands, the configuration files are XML based calling out a target tree
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| 35 | where various tasks get executed. Each task is run by an object which
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| 36 | implements a particular Task interface.
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| 37 |
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| 38 | Granted, this removes some of the expressive power that is inherent by being
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| 39 | able to construct a shell command such as `find . -name foo -exec rm {}` but
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| 40 | it gives you the ability to be cross platform. To work anywhere and
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| 41 | everywhere. And hey, if you really need to execute a shell command, Ant has
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| 42 | an exec rule that allows different commands to be executed based on the OS
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| 43 | that it is executing on.
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| 44 |
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| 45 | The Latest Version
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| 46 | ------------------
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| 47 |
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| 48 | Details of the latest version can be found on the Apache Ant
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| 49 | Project web site <http://ant.apache.org/>.
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| 50 |
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| 51 |
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| 52 | Documentation
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| 53 | -------------
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| 54 |
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| 55 | Documentation is available in HTML format, in the docs/ directory.
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| 56 | For information about building and installing Ant, see
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| 57 | docs/manual/index.html
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| 58 |
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| 59 |
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| 60 | Licensing
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| 61 | ---------
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| 62 |
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| 63 | This software is licensed under the terms you may find in the file
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| 64 | named "LICENSE" in this directory.
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| 65 |
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| 66 | This distribution includes cryptographic software. The country in
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| 67 | which you currently reside may have restrictions on the import,
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| 68 | possession, use, and/or re-export to another country, of
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| 69 | encryption software. BEFORE using any encryption software, please
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| 70 | check your country's laws, regulations and policies concerning the
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| 71 | import, possession, or use, and re-export of encryption software, to
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| 72 | see if this is permitted. See <http://www.wassenaar.org/> for more
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| 73 | information.
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| 74 |
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| 75 | The U.S. Government Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and
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| 76 | Security (BIS), has classified this software as Export Commodity
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| 77 | Control Number (ECCN) 5D002.C.1, which includes information security
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| 78 | software using or performing cryptographic functions with asymmetric
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| 79 | algorithms. The form and manner of this Apache Software Foundation
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| 80 | distribution makes it eligible for export under the License Exception
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| 81 | ENC Technology Software Unrestricted (TSU) exception (see the BIS
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| 82 | Export Administration Regulations, Section 740.13) for both object
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| 83 | code and source code.
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| 84 |
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| 85 | The following provides more details on the included cryptographic
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| 86 | software:
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| 87 |
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| 88 | For the SSH family of tasks (<sshexec> and <scp>) Ant requires the
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| 89 | JSch <http://www.jcraft.com/jsch/index.html> library as well as the
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| 90 | Java Cryptography extensions
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| 91 | <http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/security/>. Ant does not
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| 92 | include these libraries itself, but is designed to use them.
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| 93 |
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| 94 | Thanks for using Ant.
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| 95 |
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| 96 | The Apache Ant Project
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| 97 | <http://ant.apache.org/>
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