Main Tutorials

How to Apache Ant on Mac OS X

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Ant on Mac OSX.

Tools :

  1. Apache Ant 1.9.4
  2. Mac OSX Yosemite 10.10
Preinstalled Apache Ant?
In older version of Mac, Apache Ant may be already installed by default, check if Apache Ant is installed :


$ ant -v

1. Get Apache Ant

Visit Apache Ant website, and get the .tar.gz file.

install-apache-ant-on-mac-osx

2. Extracts It

Copy the downloaded gz file to your favorite location, extracts it.


$ cp ~/Downloads/apache-ant-1.9.4-bin.tar.gz .

$ cd ~
$ pwd
/Users/mkyong

$ tar vxf apache-ant-1.9.4-bin.tar.gz

x apache-ant-1.9.4/bin/ant
x apache-ant-1.9.4/bin/antRun
x apache-ant-1.9.4/bin/antRun.pl
x apache-ant-1.9.4/bin/complete-ant-cmd.pl
x apache-ant-1.9.4/bin/runant.pl
x apache-ant-1.9.4/bin/runant.py
x apache-ant-1.9.4/
x apache-ant-1.9.4/bin/
......

$ cd ~/apache-ant-1.9.4/bin
$ pwd
/Users/mkyong/apache-ant-1.9.4/bin

$ ant -v
Apache Ant(TM) version 1.9.4 compiled on April 29 2014
Trying the default build file: build.xml
Buildfile: build.xml does not exist!
Build failed

P.S The Apache Ant commands are available at folder $APACHE_ANT_FOLDER/bin.

3. Environment Variable

Set the command ant as the environment variable, so that you can “ant” build your project everywhere.


$ vim ~/.bash_profile

Exports $ANT_HOME/bin, save and restart terminal.

~/.bash_profile

export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)
export GRADLE_HOME=/Users/mkyong/gradle
export M2_HOME=/Users/mkyong/apache-maven-3.1.1

# Apache Ant
export ANT_HOME=/Users/mkyong/apache-ant-1.9.4

# Export to PATH
export PATH=$PATH:$GRADLE_HOME/bin:$M2_HOME/bin:$ANT_HOME/bin

Test it again, now, you can access the ant command everywhere.


$ cd ~
$ pwd
/Users/mkyong

$ ant -v
Apache Ant(TM) version 1.9.4 compiled on April 29 2014
Trying the default build file: build.xml
Buildfile: build.xml does not exist!
Build failed

Done.

References

  1. Apache Ant download page
  2. How to install Apache Maven on Mac OSX
  3. Linux : gzip a folder

About Author

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Founder of Mkyong.com, love Java and open source stuff. Follow him on Twitter. If you like my tutorials, consider make a donation to these charities.

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Vince
8 years ago

Okay, it took me a good 20min to figure out that your line “ant -v” should really be “./ant -v” since the command is not yet in your path..

VAIBHAV REDDY GUDDETI
5 years ago
Reply to  Vince

Thanks for the useful info 🙂

BringIt
7 years ago
Reply to  Vince

Thank. Saved my life

Lacas
8 years ago
Reply to  Vince

thanks sir for a noob like me… you saved my life

Vince
8 years ago

Also, homebrew just did everything in a minute, I should have done that to start with

Aaron
4 years ago
Reply to  Vince

Oh my. Thanks for reminding me that. I also should’ve done that instead of wasting my time looking on articles

Aditya Kainthola
3 years ago

No need to do above.
Just run the command “brew install ant”.
All the things will be automatically configured.

Md. Fakhrul Alam Onik
7 years ago

It shows the following error message: “Error opening archive: Failed to open ‘apache-ant-1.9.9/bin/ant'”. How should I proceed? I am a very first user

quikbeam
8 years ago

I had to create a new .bash_profile on my mac and after doing so I was getting -bash: ls: command not found

If you face problems with your command line after you do this you’ll need to restore your $PATH variable (add your bin locations back)

PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin

DarKnight
3 years ago

Still in 2021 it works like a charm for me!
Thanks @mkyong Sir.

P.S: Anyone doing this for first time must follow every step in sequence.

Nevaughn Blake
3 years ago

How can i install apache ant for MacOS Catalina ?

cindie marren
6 years ago

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I was absolutely beside myself trying to install this. Thank you for taking the time to make this!!

Bruce
8 years ago

Thank you sir for that very good tutorial. Very straight forward. You even showed the “pwd” structures, awesome for new people.

Ishita Dasgupta
8 years ago

it keeps saying:

build.xml doesn’t exist.
Build failed!

Could you please guide me towards what’s wrong!

Dibyendra Hyoju
8 years ago

You must use ant -version instead of ant -v.

mkyong
8 years ago

It also means the “ANT” is installed successful, at least the command is executed, just cant find the “build.xml” file. You can start to create a Java project and build.xml.

For new project, advice you choose Maven or Gradle.

Avinash Sharma
8 years ago
Reply to  mkyong

hello mkyong I have a question about the automate login to a website using java. I am trying that feature to login to http://www.craigslist.org but it shows HTTP error code like 404 and 400. Is there some problem with cookies?

JCode
4 years ago
Reply to  Avinash Sharma

Have you tried installing JQuery, apt install jquery? I hear it works well with craigslist and other internets.