Develop Reference

ANT unzip every jar except one

I have an ANT target that unzips every jar with a "for" task, but I want to exclude a specific jar called Neo.jar. This is what I have so far, but it is unzipping every single jar that is available to it.
<target name="unzipjars">
<for param="jar">
<sequential>
<unzip dest="${expanded.dirs}" src="#{jar}">
<exclude name="Neo.jar/**"/>
</unzip>
</sequential>
</for>
</target>
I was looking at trying to exclude something from "for param="jar"" but I don't think anything like that exists. The "exclude name" for Neo.jar doesn't seem to work because I believe it doesn't think it is a directory because it is a jar

As you can see here, it's quietly easy.
All you need is to add the tag patternset to your configuration (and you don't need to iterate by the way...). Like this:
<target name="unzipjars">
<unzip dest="${expanded.dirs}">
<patternset>
<exclude name="**/Neo.jar"/>
</patternset>
<fileset dir="${jar}">
<include name="**/*.*"/>
</fileset>
</unzip>
</target>

You can use the if task (http://ant-contrib.sourceforge.net/tasks/tasks/if.html) to filter out the Neo.jar file. For example
<for param="jar">
<sequential>
<if>
<not><equals arg1="#{jar}" arg2="Neo.jar" /></not>
<then><!-- unzip the jar --></then>
</if>
</sequential>
</for>

Does Ant guarantee order of filesets?

in our project we use Ant to distribute files. There is hierarchy of files, and they overwrite files from previous level. Like this: default - level1 - level2. Currently it is made the way:
<copy todir="...">
<fileset dir="${root}/default" includes="**/*" excludes="file1" />
<fileset dir="${root}/level1" includes="**/*" />
<fileset dir="${root}/level2" includes="**/*" excludes="file2"/>
</copy>
So we expected that all the folders contain file with the same name, it will be taken from level2 directory.
Not long ago we moved to a new build box with another version of Java and we discovered that the order of filesets is broken.
Is there a way to fix this issue without modifying ant config files? We have a big number of it. If there is no way, how can I got it off cheap? Thank you.

I don't know if the order of filesets is quaranteed, but the order of copy tasks is.
So, following the suggestion of this answer, it might be a good idea to write several copy tasks with overwrite="true":
<copy todir="...">
<fileset dir="${root}/default" includes="**/*" excludes="file1" />
</copy>
<copy todir="...">
<fileset dir="${root}/level1" includes="**/*" overwrite="true" />
</copy>
<copy todir="...">
<fileset dir="${root}/level2" includes="**/*" excludes="file2" overwrite="true" />
</copy>

You can wrap a sort resource collection around your filesets and ensure the order used by copy this way. Sort itself only likes a single resource collection as child element, so you need to wrap the fileset inside a union or resources container.
See http://ant.apache.org/manual/Types/resources.html#sort
Something like
<sort>
<resources>
<fileset dir="${root}/default" includes="**/*" excludes="file1" />
<fileset dir="${root}/level1" includes="**/*" />
<fileset dir="${root}/level2" includes="**/*" excludes="file2"/>
</resources>
<name/>
</sort>
to sort the files by name.

How to include source code in ant ear

I'm building an ear file using ANT build.xml and need to include .java files in my ear package created. Any pointers?
Below is the war section from my build.xml
<target name="war" depends="compile">
<war destfile="${dist}/${ant.project.name}.war" webxml="${warbasepath}/WebContent/WEB-INF/web.xml">
<lib dir="${lib}" />
<classes dir="${build}"/>
<fileset dir="${warbasepath}/WebContent" excludes="**/*.class **/*.jar" />
</war>
</target>

Take a look at the EAR task manual. It is just an extension of the JAR task, so you can include whatever you like. ​
You can include arbitrary filesets:
<ear destfile="${build.dir}/myapp.ear" appxml="${src.dir}/metadata/application.xml">
<fileset dir="${build.dir}" includes="*.jar,*.war"/>
<fileset dir="${src.dir}" includes="**/*.java"/>
</ear>
However an EAR should be just a container for wars and ejb jars, so you probably should add your source code rather in those.

Eclipse: Ant script to export User Library/Libraries for project

I am new to Java programming. I initially started with NetBeans but have moved to Eclipse given the advice from a friend.
In NetBeans, a pre-written ant build script for the project would generate a Project.jar file and place all required libraries/jars in a lib/ folder.
However, in Eclipse it appears that I need to write my own ant script. I have written a few lines to generate the jar file:
<target name="compile">
<mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/>
<javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${build.dir}" classpathref="jars" debug="on"/>
</target>
How do I write a command to copy all of the jars in my User Library to a ${build.dir}/lib/ folder?
Thanks.

Use the copy task
like so, with the appropriate include or exclude pattern
<copy todir="${build.dir}/lib/">
<fileset dir="src_dir">
<include name="**/*.jar"/>
</fileset>
</copy>
<copy todir="${build.dir}/lib/">
<fileset dir="src_dir" excludes="**/*.java"/>
</copy>

If you are new to Java take the chance to have a look at maven. It is a build tool like ant with a lot of predefined 'goals' and a fully developed dependency (to other libraries) handling. You will find a eclipse plugin which will be very useful.
Maven projects have a special directory layout which is kind of best practise and helpful for beginners. If you work on a maven project you can just use the command
mvn dependency:copy-dependencies
as a console command (or eclipse run configuration) to copy your project dependencies (libraries) to the <project>\target\dependency directory.

I recommend to use ant4eclipse library for ant based eclipse projects. When you use it, you can access eclipse workspace/project settings, and can iterate tought eclipse project class path in ant.
See the example code bellow:
<path id="ant.classpath">
<fileset dir="${lib.dir}/ant4eclipse">
<include name="*.jar" />
</fileset>
<taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antlib.xml" />
<taskdef resource="net/sf/ant4eclipse/antlib.xml" />
<targetPlatform
<target name="copy_jars">
<getEclipseClasspath workspace="${basedir}/.."
projectname="TestProject"
targetPlatformLocation="c:/eclipse"
property="classpath"
relative="false"
runtime="true"
pathseparator="#" />
<!-- iterate over all classpath entries -->
<foreach list="${classpath}" delimiter="#"
target="copy_jar_file" param="classpath.entry" />
</target>
<target name="copy_jar_file">
<!-- check if current is a .jar-file ... -->
<if>
<isfileselected file="${classpath.entry}">
<filename name="**/*.jar" />
</isfileselected>
<then>
<!-- copy the jar file to a destination directory -->
<copy file="${classpath.entry}" tofile="${dest.dir}"/>
</then>
</if>
</target>
If you would like to use user libraries, you can define it by userlibraries command.

Ant copy classpath jars to a directory

I'm sure this has either been asked before or is pretty straightforward. But for whatever reason, I cannot seem to make it work. I want to use ant to copy the ${build.classpath} (which contains a colon separated list of jars) to the ${output.dir}/myapp/WEB-INF/lib.
I have this right now and it doesn't seem to work:
<copy toDir="${output.dir}/myapp/WEB-INF/lib">
<fileset file="${build.classpath}" />
</copy>
It treats the whole classpath as one file. How do I get this to work?

The Ant Manual on the copy task contains the answer for your problem. One of the example snippets it provides:
Collect all items from the current CLASSPATH setting into a destination directory, flattening the directory structure.
<copy todir="dest" flatten="true">
<path>
<pathelement path="${java.class.path}"/>
</path>
</copy>

I think somethink like this should work:
<copy todir="${output.dir}/myapp/WEB-INF/lib" verbose="yes" flatten="yes" failonerror="no">
<fileset dir="${build.classpath}">
<include name="*.jar" />
</fileset>
</copy>
or with wildcard in include: <include name="**/*.jar" />

I think you should put all your colon separated jar files to one root folder. If it is not possible then create a separate task that put those jar files into one folder(may be temporary). And assign ${build.classpath} to that folder. Use <fileset dir="${build.classpath}"/> in your copy clause.
I hope, it should help.