{"id":127,"date":"2026-10-12T10:21:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T10:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scmgalaxy.com\/tutorials\/2009\/06\/20\/ant-script-with-shell-script\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T10:21:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T10:21:35","slug":"ant-script-with-shell-script","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/ant-script-with-shell-script\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Run Shell Scripts from Apache Ant (and Set Unix File Permissions Safely)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This guide explains how to combine Apache Ant<\/strong> with Unix shell scripts<\/strong> for build tasks such as setting file permissions and processing files. It is aimed at engineers maintaining legacy Ant-based automation who need reliable, repeatable behavior in CI\/CD environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally published on 2009-06-20; fully revised and updated.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original post for reference: Ant Script with Shell script, How to run shell script from Ant Script?<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Ant<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

What this Ant + shell integration typically solves<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  • Set execute permissions on scripts before running them.<\/li>
  • Call shell utilities that are not available as native Ant tasks.<\/li>
  • Run file cleanup or text normalization during builds.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Choose the right approach: native Ant task vs shell execution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Prefer native Ant tasks when they exist, and use shell commands through exec<\/code> when you need OS-specific tooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Approach<\/th>Best for<\/th>Advantages<\/th>Caveats<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Ant chmod<\/code> task<\/td>Setting Unix permissions on files\/directories<\/td>Portable inside Ant builds; easy to read<\/td>Unix-like environments only<\/td><\/tr>
    Ant exec<\/code> calling a script file<\/td>Reusable, multi-step shell logic<\/td>Keeps shell logic versioned and testable<\/td>Requires shell\/runtime on build agent<\/td><\/tr>
    Ant exec<\/code> with inline -c<\/code> command<\/td>Small one-liners<\/td>Fast to add<\/td>Harder to maintain and quote safely<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Execution flow when Ant runs shell commands<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \nflowchart TD\n    A[Ant target starts] --> B{Native Ant task available}\n    B -- Yes --> C[Run built in Ant task]\n    B -- No --> D[Use exec task]\n    D --> E[Call shell script with args]\n    E --> F[Script returns exit code]\n    F --> G{Exit code is zero}\n    G -- Yes --> H[Continue build]\n    G -- No --> I[Fail build when failonerror is true]\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    Set file permissions directly in Ant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    Use Ant\u2019s chmod<\/code> task to ensure scripts are executable before calling them.<\/p>\n\n\n
    <project<\/span> name<\/span>=\"example\"<\/span> default<\/span>=\"fix-perms\"<\/span> basedir<\/span>=\".\"<\/span>><\/span>\n  <target<\/span> name<\/span>=\"fix-perms\"<\/span>><\/span>\n    <chmod<\/span> perm<\/span>=\"755\"<\/span>><\/span>\n      <fileset<\/span> dir<\/span>=\"${basedir}\/scripts\"<\/span>><\/span>\n        <include<\/span> name<\/span>=\"**\/*.sh\"<\/span>\/><\/span>\n      <\/fileset<\/span>><\/span>\n    <\/chmod<\/span>><\/span>\n  <\/target<\/span>><\/span>\n<\/project<\/span>><\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> HTML, XML<\/span> (<\/span>xml<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
    Run a shell script from Ant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    Call a script file (recommended)<\/h3>\n\n\n
    <target<\/span> name<\/span>=\"run-cleanup\"<\/span> depends<\/span>=\"fix-perms\"<\/span>><\/span>\n  <exec<\/span> executable<\/span>=\"\/bin\/sh\"<\/span> failonerror<\/span>=\"true\"<\/span>><\/span>\n    <arg<\/span> value<\/span>=\"${basedir}\/scripts\/cleanup-crlf.sh\"<\/span>\/><\/span>\n    <arg<\/span> value<\/span>=\"${basedir}\/input\"<\/span>\/><\/span>\n  <\/exec<\/span>><\/span>\n<\/target<\/span>><\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> HTML, XML<\/span> (<\/span>xml<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
    Run a one-liner inline<\/h3>\n\n\n
    <target<\/span> name<\/span>=\"list-text-files\"<\/span>><\/span>\n  <exec<\/span> executable<\/span>=\"\/bin\/sh\"<\/span> failonerror<\/span>=\"true\"<\/span>><\/span>\n    <arg<\/span> value<\/span>=\"-c\"<\/span>\/><\/span>\n    <arg<\/span> value<\/span>=\"find '${basedir}\/input' -type f -name '*.txt' -print\"<\/span>\/><\/span>\n  <\/exec<\/span>><\/span>\n<\/target<\/span>><\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> HTML, XML<\/span> (<\/span>xml<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
    Example cleanup script for carriage-return removal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    The original post referenced removing special characters. The script below shows a safer pattern for removing carriage returns from text files and replacing files atomically.<\/p>\n\n\n
    #!\/usr\/bin\/env bash<\/span>\nset -euo pipefail\n\nroot_dir=\"${1:-.}\"<\/span>\n\nfind \"$root_dir\"<\/span> -type f -print0 | while<\/span> IFS= read -r -d ''<\/span> file; do<\/span>\n  tmp=\"${file}.tmp\"<\/span>\n  tr -d '\\r'<\/span> < \"$file\"<\/span> > \"$tmp\"<\/span>\n  mv \"$tmp\"<\/span> \"$file\"<\/span>\n  echo<\/span> \"updated: $file\"<\/span>\ndone<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> PHP<\/span> (<\/span>php<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n
    chmod +x scripts\/cleanup-crlf.sh\nant run-cleanup<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
    Best practices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    • Use failonerror=\"true\"<\/code> so shell failures stop the build immediately.<\/li>
    • Keep complex shell logic in versioned .sh<\/code> files, not inline command strings.<\/li>
    • Apply cleanup only to known text files to avoid corrupting binaries.<\/li>
    • Use Ant properties for paths instead of hardcoding directories.<\/li>
    • Validate shell availability (\/bin\/sh<\/code> or bash<\/code>) on each CI runner image.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
      Learn practical patterns for combining Apache Ant with shell scripts in Unix-like build environments. This guide covers file permissions, script execution, and safer file-processing examples for legacy CI pipelines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[3047,3045,3044,3050,3051,3048,3043,1668,139,2302,3046,3049],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apache-ant","tag-ant-and-shell-script-commands","tag-ant-script","tag-ant-script-with-shell-script","tag-ant-via-a-shell-script","tag-call","tag-call-shell-script-from-ant-script","tag-how-to-run-shell-script-using-ant","tag-run","tag-scripting","tag-scripts","tag-shell-script","tag-shell-script-using-ant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78976,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/78976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}