How can I build multiple projects in Ant with one build file?

Question

Can I build multiple projects from one build-file. Example:

<project basedir="." default="all" name="app1">
    ...
</project>

<project basedir="." default="all" name="app2">
    ...
</project>

Currently I type ant -f build1.xml compile and it builds my application and I have to use two separate build files. Is there some way to get it running in a way that i have both the projects defined a common build-file and I can type something like ant app1 compile or ant app2 compile?

Here's what my build-file looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="azebooster" default="dist" basedir=".">

    <!-- Globals -->
    <property name="src" location="src/com/aelitis"/>
    <property name="build" location="build/azebooster"/>
    <property name="jar" location="jar/azebooster"/>
    <property name="resources" location="res/azebooster"/>

    <!-- Paths -->
    <path id="classpath">
        <fileset dir="." includes="**/*.jar"/>
    </path>

    <!-- Start it -->
    <target name="init">
      <tstamp/>
      <mkdir dir="${build}"/>
      <mkdir dir="${jar}"/>
    </target>

    <!-- Build it -->
    <target name="compile" depends="init" description="compile the source" >
        <javac srcdir="${src}" destdir="${build}">
            <classpath>
                <path refid="classpath"/>
            </classpath>
        </javac>
    </target>

    <!-- Jar it -->
    <target name="jar" depends="compile">
        <jar destfile="${jar}/${ant.project.name}.jar">
            <fileset dir="${build}"/>
            <fileset dir="${resources}" />
        </jar>
    </target>

    <!-- Clean it -->
    <target name="clean" description="clean up" >
        <tstamp/>
        <delete dir="${build}"/>
        <delete dir="${jar}"/>
    </target>

</project>

Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes you can create a default.build file (in this way you don't need to specify the file, because it's used by default). On it you can create the following targets:

<target name="all" depends="app1, app2" />

<target name="app1">
    <ant antfile=<app1file> target="compile" />        
</target>

<target name="app2">
    <ant antfile=<app2file> target="compile" />        
</target>

On this way you can use both ant file from one unique file.

And you can do all in only one file, if you replace the app1 and app2 targets, with the needed targets to compile them that you have in the separate files.

EDITED:

You have different ways to include both of them in only one file, maybe the easiest one is include a suffix for each project on each target. And you can call the specific project target or the target for both.

I put you an example with the compile target (and for init target too).

You can use compile for compile both projects (I call the other project other), and compileazeboster to compile the azeboster project.

You can search the common things to avoid the innecesary duplicated code (common paths, targets and so on)

<property name="srcazebooster" location="src/com/aelitis"/>
<property name="buildazebooster" location="build/azebooster"/>
<property name="jarazebooster" location="jar/azebooster"/>
<property name="srcother" location="src/other"/>
<property name="buildother" location="build/other"/>
<property name="jarother" location="jar/other"/>


<!-- Start it -->
<target name="init" depends="initazebooster, initother"/>

<!-- Build it -->
<target name="compile" depends="compileazebooster, compileother" description="compile the source for all" />



<!-- Start azebooster-->
<target name="initazebooster">
    <tstamp/>
    <mkdir dir="${buildazebooster}"/>
    <mkdir dir="${jarazebooster}"/>
</target>

<!-- Build azeboster-->
<target name="compileazebooster" depends="initazebooster" description="compile the source for azebooster" >
    <javac srcdir="${srcazebooster}" destdir="${buildazebooster}">
        <classpath>
            <path refid="classpath"/>
        </classpath>
    </javac>
</target>

<!-- Start other-->
<target name="initother">
    <tstamp/>
    <mkdir dir="${buildotherr}"/>
    <mkdir dir="${jarother}"/>
</target>

<!-- Build other-->
<target name="compileother" depends="initother" description="compile the source for other" >
    <javac srcdir="${srcother}" destdir="${buildother}">
        <classpath>
            <path refid="classpath"/>
        </classpath>
    </javac>
</target>