Apache Ant Javac Task

Ant Javac task is used to compile Java source file. It scans source and destination directory to compile the source file. It only compiles if either .class is not present or .class is older than Java file.

If the Java source file is located into any package, source file should have directory hierarchy.

Apache Ant Javac Attributes

Attribute	Description	Required
srcdir	Source Java file.	Yes
destdir	Destination to store the class files.	No
includes	A list of patterns of files that must be included.	No
includesfile	Each line of this file is taken to be an include pattern.	No
excludes	A list of patterns of files that must be excluded.	No; defaults to default excludes or none if defaultexcludes is no
excludesfile	Each line of this file is taken to be an exclude pattern.	No
classpath	The classpath to use.	No
bootclasspath	Path of bootstrap class files.	No
extdirs	Path of installed extensions.	No
encoding	Encoding of source files.	No
nowarn	It is used to pass -nowarn switch to the compiler.	No
debug	To debug file during compilation.	No
debuglevel	Set level of debug file.	No
optimize	Indicates whether source should be compiled with optimization.	No
deprecation	Compile with with deprecation information.	No
verbose	Asks the compiler for verbose output.	No
depend	Enables dependency tracking for compilers that support it.	No
includeAntRuntime	Whether to include the Ant run-time libraries in the classpath or not.	No
fork	Whether to execute javac using the JDK compiler externally or not.	No
executable	Complete path to the javac executable.	No
memoryInitialSize	Set initial memory size.	No
memoryMaximumSize	The maximum size of the memory for the underlying JVM.	No

Apache Ant Javac Example

The following code compiles a Java source file and store class file into destination directory.

// build.xml

<project name="java-ant project" default="compile">	
	<target name="compile">
		<javac includeantruntime="false" srcdir="./src" destdir = "test"></javac>
	</target>
</project>

Example: Setting debug mode true

This example will compile all Java source file located into srcdir and store .class into destdir directory. It will compile Java source in debug mode because the debug mode is on.

<project name="java-ant project" default="run">	
	<target name="run">
		<javac srcdir="${src}" destdir="${build}"
       			classpath="xyz.jar" debug="on" source="1.4"/>
    </target>
</project>

Example : Setting source level and target version

This example will compile all Java source file located into srcdir and store .class into destdir directory. The source level is 1.8 and the .class file will run under Jdk 1.8.

<project name="java-ant project" default="run">	
	<target name="run">
		<javac srcdir="${src}" destdir="${build}"
       			classpath="xyz.jar" fork="true" source="1.8" target="1.8"/>
    </target>
</project>

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