Apache Ant/Getting Started/Installation

Before starting, you will need to have a running version of the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.2 or later. For Ant 1.7, JDK 1.5 is recommended. Ant will need a JAXP-compliant XML parser installed and available in your classpath. The binary distribution of Ant includes the latest version of the Apache Xerces2 XML parser.

To install Ant on Windows, you can use WinAnt the Windows installer for Apache Ant. Download and run the latest version of WinAnt, and follow the directions in the installer. WinAnt will place the "ant" executable on your system path, which allows you to run the command "ant" from the command line at any directory in your system. Or, you can follow these directions:

The first step is to download Apache Ant.

There are two options. You can compile the program from the source or for beginners we recommend just downloading a binary file called a zip file.

You can find the download page here: http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi

You will need to download a file such as

apache-ant-1.7.0-bin.zip

This is a compressed archive file. You will need to uncompress it.

If you are not familiar with the process of uncompressing a file you should consult your computer operating system manual.

After this is done, you will see a folder such as:

apache-ant-1.7.0

This folder contains another folder called "bin". Within that there is a file called ant.bat that you can run directly from the command line.

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