Ant - Using Command Line Arguments

Ant can read command pne arguments easily to pass data to its tasks.

Commnd Line Arguments Options

ant [options] [target [target2 [target3] ...]]
Options:
   -help,          -h              print this message and exit
   -projecthelp,   -p              print project help information and exit
   -version                        print the version information and exit
   -diagnostics                    print information that might be helpful to diagnose or report problems and exit
   -quiet,         -q              be extra quiet
   -silent,        -S              print nothing but task outputs and build failures
   -verbose,       -v              be extra verbose
   -debug,         -d              print debugging information
   -emacs,         -e              produce logging information without adornments
   -pb          <path>            specifies a path to search for jars and classes
   -logfile      <file>            use given file for log
   -l            <file>                        
   -logger       <classname>       the class which is to perform logging
   -pstener     <classname>       add an instance of class as a project pstener
   -noinput                              do not allow interactive input
   -buildfile    <file>            use given buildfile
   -file         <file>                        
   -f            <file>                        
   -D            <property>=<value>   use value for given property
   -keep-going,    -k              execute all targets that do not depend on failed target(s)
   -propertyfile <name>            load all properties from file with -D properties taking precedence
   -inputhandler <class>           the class which will handle input requests
   -find         <file>            (s)earch for buildfile towards the root of
   -s            <file>            the filesystem and use it
   -nice         number            A niceness value for the main thread:1 (lowest) to 10 (highest); 5  is the default
   -nouserpb                      Run ant without using the jar files from ${user.home}/.ant/pb
   -noclasspath                    Run ant without using CLASSPATH
   -autoproxy                      Java 5+ : use the OS proxies
   -main         <class>           override Ant s normal entry point

We ll be using -Dproperty to pass varibles to the build task.

Example

Create a src folder with text1.txt file with following contents −

This is a sample text written in 2021.

Create build.xml with the following content −

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="sample" basedir="." default="copy">
   <target name="copy">
      <copy todir="${dest.dir}" filtering="true">
		<fileset dir="${src.dir}"/>
      </copy>
   </target>
</project>

Output

Here we re using src.dir and dest.dir properties without defining them. We ll pass them using command pne arguments. Running Ant on the above build file produces the following output −

F:	utorialspointant>ant -Dsrc.dir=src -Ddest.dir=build
Buildfile: F:	utorialspointantuild.xml

copy:
   [copy] Copying 1 file to F:	utorialspointantuild
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 0 seconds

F:	utorialspointant>

Verify the content of copied file to build folder.

This is a sample text written in 2021.