difference of <path> and <classpath> in ant

Question

After reviewing the ant docs it is not clear as to what the differences are between the <path> and <classpath> tasks.

Are there any functional differences? Are they essentially interchangeable?

Any input would be appreciated, Thanks.

Answer 1

There isn't an Ant classpath task. The classpath XML element is a nested element that can be used in a number of other tasks (javac for example) but it can't be used stand-alone in an Ant buildfile.

A classpath is just one particular use of a path. If you want to define a path to be used as a classpath in more than one place, you'd use the path task to define it and include an id parameter. Later, when declaring the classpath, you can refer to the earlier defined path by reference.

Something like:

<path id="my.classpath" ... />

Later:

<javac classpathref="my.classpath" ... />

Or:

<javac ... >
    <classpath refid="my.classpath" />
    ...
</javac>