Ant build scripts, antcall, dependencies, etc

Question

I have a build script and as part of that script it copies a jar file to a directory, for ease lets call it the utils jar. the utils jar is built by another build script sittin

Answer 1

You can pass params down to antcall using nested in the antcall block. So, you can pass the properties down that way (probably even basedir since properties are immutable).

Answer 2

Try using the "ant" task instead of the "antcall" task, which runs the imported build directly instead of importing it into the current build file. It has a "dir" parameter:

the directory to use as a basedir for the new Ant project. Defaults to the current project's basedir, unless inheritall has been set to false, in which case it doesn't have a default value. This will override the basedir setting of the called project.

So you could do:

<ant antfile="${baseDirUpOne}/utils/build/build.xml" dir="../utils/build" />

or something like that.

Answer 3

I've got something similar set up: I have a main Ant build.xml which calls a separate build.xml that takes care of building my tests. This is how I do it:

<target name="build-tests">
    <subant target="build">
      <fileset dir="${test.home}" includes="build.xml"/>
    </subant>
</target>

The trick is to use subant instead of antcall. You don't have to import the other build file.