Ant’s built-in properties – Ant Properties Guide

This is a simple example that illustrates how to find the basedir name, file name, project name, ant version, java version, operating system name, ant home directory name, java home directory name, user home directory name and user name. Ant provides you with certain built-in properties that you may find useful during your build process. The following table shows the property name and it’s description.

Ant’s built-in properties:

Property                                                              Description

ant.file                                                                  The absolute path of the build file

ant.project.name                                            The name of the project as set in the <project> element’s name attribute.

ant.home                                                            The root directory of ant

ant.version                                                         The version of this ant installation. This is not just the version number and includes information such as the compilation date.

ant.java.version                                               The version of the java that ant uses

basedir                                                                 The absolute path of the project

os.name                                                              Operating system name

java.home                                                          Java home directory name

user.home                                                          User directory name

user.name                                                          User name                         

Example Program:

<?xml version=”1.0″?>

<project name=”AntProperties” default=”echo” basedir=”.”>

  <target name=”echo”>

  <echo message=”The operating system is: ${os.name}”/> 

  <!– absolute path of the project. –>

  <echo message=”The home path is: ${basedir}”/>

  <!– absolute path of the build file. –>

  <echo message=”The file name is: ${ant.file}”/>

  <!– root directory of ant. –>

  <echo message=”The Project name is: ${ant.project.name}”/>

  <echo message=”The Ant home directory is: ${ant.home}”/>

  <echo message=”The Ant version is: ${ant.version}”/>

  <echo message=”The Java version is: ${ant.java.version}”/>

  <!– System properties. –>

  <echo message=”The Java home directory is: ${java.home}”/>

  <echo message=”The User home directory is: ${user.home}”/>

  <echo message=”The User name is: ${user.name}”/>

  </target>

</project>

Rajesh Kumar

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