| BOOTSTRAP FOLDER README |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| |
| The utilities provided here are used by the developers of Ant to |
| bootstrap builds of Ant and will be used by the nightly build process |
| to build Ant from a zero state. |
| |
| That said, there is no reason for most folks -- even hard core Ant |
| developers -- to use the files here on a regular basis. You should |
| really have the latest stable version of Ant installed somewhere so |
| that you can easily build Ant using itself. Check out the |
| installation guidelines in the documentation for suggestions on how |
| Ant can be installed as a full time program of your system. |
| |
| HOW TO USE |
| |
| So, you really want to use the bootstrap facilities instead of just |
| downloading a build from somewhere? Ok. Here's how it works: |
| |
| * Make sure that sun.tools.javac.Main is on your classpath. |
| Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't -- it depends on the JDK |
| installed on your machine. You can do a quick check using |
| the 'javap sun.tools.javac.Main' command to see if it is. |
| |
| * Make sure that you have xml-crimson checked out next to |
| the jakarta-ant workspace so that the Bootstrap can find |
| this necessary code. |
| |
| * Compile Bootstrap.java. You should end up with Bootstrap.class |
| and maybe a few other classes (depending). |
| |
| * Execute the Bootstrap class. |
| |
| How this will work in practice is: |
| |
| % javac Bootstrap.java |
| % java Bootstrap |
| |
| The Bootstrap class will grind out a preliminary build in the directory |
| 'temp/' which will be placed in this directory, then use that build to |
| build a real copy of Ant into '../Build' using Ant's own makefile. After |
| doing this, the Boostrap class will remove the intermediate build in |
| the 'temp/' directory. |
| |
| HISTORICAL NOTE |
| |
| The Bootstrap class is somewhat the same rough hack as the first sketch |
| of Ant itself -- a proof of concept that a Java based build system |
| could work out halfway decently. Of course, Ant has expanded much past |
| the capabilities of this, but this little start serves as a useful |
| tool to bootstrap builds. |