In the directory java/alternative, you will find a build item that has a hand-coded ant build file, Abuild-ant.xml. When abuild encounters this file, it invokes ant directly (Section 16.3, “The Abuild-ant.xml File”). If you examine the Abuild-ant.xml in this directory, you will notice that it defines a target all that builds everything that would ordinarily be required by its reverse dependencies. It also defines the standard targets test, check, and doc that are expected to be present for all build items. In addition, it defines its own special target run that runs the application. Notice that the source path in the java element in this file is ../src/java. Since abuild invokes ant on this build file from inside the abuild-java output directory, all references to source paths must be prefixed by “../”:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<project default="all">

 <property file=".ab-dynamic-ant.properties"/>

 <property name="jar-name" location="dist/alternative.jar"/>

 <path id="classpath">
  <pathelement path="${abuild.classpath}"/>
  <pathelement path="${jar-name}"/>
 </path>

 <!--  Abuild expects the all target to build everything required  -->
 <!--  by items that depend upon this item.                        -->
 <target name="all">
  <mkdir dir="classes"/>
  <mkdir dir="dist"/>
  <javac source="1.5"
         target="1.5"
         destdir="classes"
         classpathref="classpath"
         includeantruntime="no">
   <src path="../src/java"/>
   <compilerarg value="-Xlint"/>
   <compilerarg value="-Xlint:-path"/>
  </javac>
  <jar destfile="${jar-name}">
   <fileset dir="classes">
    <include name="**/*.class"/>
   </fileset>
  </jar>
 </target>

 <!--  Abuild expects all build items to support these targets as  -->
 <!--  well.                                                       -->
 <target name="check"/>
 <target name="test"/>
 <target name="doc"/>

 <target name="run" depends="all">
  <java classname="com.example.alternative.Alternative"
        fork="true"
        classpathref="classpath"/>
 </target>

</project>

Also observe that this build file loads the .ab-dynamic-ant.properties so that it can still benefit from classpath information as determined by the interfaces of its dependencies. All Abuild-ant.xml files should do this. This build item uses the property abuild.classpath, which comes from that file. For a list of properties that will be defined in .ab-dynamic-ant.properties, see Section 14.5, “Predefined Abuild.interface Variables”.

At this time, it is uncertain what abuild's final Java support will look like, but the use of Abuild-ant.xml is not recommended unless there is no other option.