The title of this column, Java Matters, has a dual meaning. In one sense, it’s about the technical matters that concern Java when trying to use it under Linux. The other way of looking at it is to acknowledge that Java and Linux are intertwined such that whatever happens in one community is reflected in the other — hence Java matters to Linux, and vice versa. This column represents an attempt to bridge the gap between Java and Linux by providing practices for using them together.
The title of this column, Java Matters, has a dual meaning. In one sense, it’s about the technical matters that concern Java when trying to use it under Linux. The other way of looking at it is to acknowledge that Java and Linux are intertwined such that whatever happens in one community is reflected in the other — hence Java matters to Linux, and vice versa. This column represents an attempt to bridge the gap between Java and Linux by providing practices for using them together.
Let’s start by talking about build tools, because every Java project needs one in order to create libraries and applications from source code. On Unix, the traditional build tool has been make, but because the commands that it calls might not be available on other operating systems, it is essentially non-portable.
The new kid on the block is called Ant, a sub-project of the Jakarta Project (http://www.jakarta.apache.org). The goal of this project is to provide commercial-quality server solutions that are based on Java.
Ant is a build system based on both Java and XML that’s, “…kind of like make without make’s wrinkles,” as it is described on the Web site. Originally designed and built by James Duncan Davidson for building the Tomcat servlet/JSP engine, Ant has grown in recent years to be the build tool of choice for many Java projects.
Ant is controlled through the use of XML tags. These tags let you define targets, which are either…
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