Ant has two related features to allow the build process to be monitored: listeners and loggers.
A listener is alerted of the following events:
Loggers extend the capabilities of listeners and add the following features:
| Classname | Description | Type |
org.apache.tools.ant.DefaultLogger |
The logger used implicitly unless overridden with the
-logger command-line switch. |
BuildLogger |
org.apache.tools.ant.NoBannerLogger |
This logger omits output of empty target output. | BuildLogger |
org.apache.tools.ant.listener.MailLogger |
Extends DefaultLogger such that output is still generated the same, and when the build is finished an e-mail can be sent. | BuildLogger |
org.apache.tools.ant.listener.AnsiColorLogger |
Colorifies the build output. | BuildLogger |
org.apache.tools.ant.listener.Log4jListener |
Passes events to Log4j for highly customizable logging. | BuildListener |
org.apache.tools.ant.XmlLogger |
Writes the build information to an XML file. | BuildLogger |
org.apache.tools.ant.TimestampedLogger |
Prints the time that a build finished | BuildLogger |
Simply run Ant normally, or:
ant -logger org.apache.tools.ant.DefaultLogger
Removes output of empty target output.
ant -logger org.apache.tools.ant.NoBannerLogger
The MailLogger captures all output logged through DefaultLogger (standard Ant output) and will send success and failure messages to unique e-mail lists, with control for turning off success or failure messages individually.
Properties controlling the operation of MailLogger:
| Property | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| MailLogger.mailhost | Mail server to use | No, default "localhost" |
| MailLogger.port | SMTP Port for the Mail server | No, default "25" |
| MailLogger.user | user name for SMTP auth | Yes, if SMTP auth is required on your SMTP server the email message will be then sent using Mime and requires JavaMail |
| MailLogger.password | password for SMTP auth | Yes, if SMTP auth is required on your SMTP server the email message will be then sent using Mime and requires JavaMail |
| MailLogger.ssl | on or true if ssl is needed This feature requires JavaMail |
no |
| MailLogger.from | Mail "from" address | Yes, if mail needs to be sent |
| MailLogger.replyto | Mail "replyto" address(es), comma-separated | No |
| MailLogger.failure.notify | Send build failure e-mails? | No, default "true" |
| MailLogger.success.notify | Send build success e-mails? | No, default "true" |
| MailLogger.failure.to | Address(es) to send failure messages to, comma-separated | Yes, if failure mail is to be sent |
| MailLogger.success.to | Address(es) to send success messages to, comma-separated | Yes, if success mail is to be sent |
| MailLogger.failure.subject | Subject of failed build | No, default "Build Failure" |
| MailLogger.success.subject | Subject of successful build | No, default "Build Success" |
| MailLogger.properties.file | Filename of properties file that will override other values. | No |
ant -logger org.apache.tools.ant.listener.MailLogger
The AnsiColorLogger adds color to the standard Ant output by prefixing and suffixing ANSI color code escape sequences to it. It is just an extension of DefaultLogger and hence provides all features that DefaultLogger does.
AnsiColorLogger differentiates the output by assigning different colors depending upon the type of the message.
If used with the -logfile option, the output file will contain all the necessary escape codes to display the text in colorized mode when displayed in the console using applications like cat, more, etc.
This is designed to work on terminals that support ANSI color codes. It works on XTerm, ETerm, Win9x Console (with ANSI.SYS loaded.), etc.
NOTE: It doesn't work on WinNT even when a COMMAND.COM console loaded with ANSI.SYS is used.
If the user wishes to override the default colors with custom ones, a file containing zero or more of the custom color key-value pairs must be created. The recognized keys and their default values are shown below:
AnsiColorLogger.ERROR_COLOR=2;31
AnsiColorLogger.WARNING_COLOR=2;35
AnsiColorLogger.INFO_COLOR=2;36
AnsiColorLogger.VERBOSE_COLOR=2;32
AnsiColorLogger.DEBUG_COLOR=2;34
Each key takes as value a color combination defined as Attribute;Foreground;Background. In the above example, background value has not been used.
This file must be specfied as the value of a system variable named ant.logger.defaults and passed as an argument using the -D option to the java command that invokes the Ant application. An easy way to achieve this is to add -Dant.logger.defaults= /path/to/your/file to the ANT_OPTS environment variable. Ant's launching script recognizes this flag and will pass it to the java command appropriately.
Format:
AnsiColorLogger.*=Attribute;Foreground;Background Attribute is one of the following: 0 -> Reset All Attributes (return to normal mode) 1 -> Bright (Usually turns on BOLD) 2 -> Dim 3 -> Underline 5 -> link 7 -> Reverse 8 -> Hidden Foreground is one of the following: 30 -> Black 31 -> Red 32 -> Green 33 -> Yellow 34 -> Blue 35 -> Magenta 36 -> Cyan 37 -> White Background is one of the following: 40 -> Black 41 -> Red 42 -> Green 43 -> Yellow 44 -> Blue 45 -> Magenta 46 -> Cyan 47 -> White
ant -logger org.apache.tools.ant.listener.AnsiColorLogger
Passes build events to Log4j, using the full classname's of the generator of each build event as the category:
All start events are logged as INFO. Finish events are either logged as INFO or ERROR depending on whether the build failed during that stage. Message events are logged according to their Ant logging level, mapping directly to a corresponding Log4j level.
ant -listener org.apache.tools.ant.listener.Log4jListener
To use Log4j you will need the Log4j jar file and a 'log4j.properties' configuration file. Both should be placed somewhere in your Ant classpath. If the log4j.properties is in your project root folder you can add this with -lib option:
ant -listener org.apache.tools.ant.listener.Log4jListener -lib .
If, for example, you wanted to capture the same information output to the console by the DefaultLogger and send it to a file named 'build.log', you could use the following configuration:
log4j.rootLogger=ERROR, LogFile log4j.logger.org.apache.tools.ant.Project=INFO log4j.logger.org.apache.tools.ant.Target=INFO log4j.logger.org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs=INFO log4j.logger.org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Echo=WARN log4j.appender.LogFile=org.apache.log4j.FileAppender log4j.appender.LogFile.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout log4j.appender.LogFile.layout.ConversionPattern=[%6r] %8c{1} : %m%n log4j.appender.LogFile.file=build.log
For more information about configuring Log4J see its documentation page.
Writes all build information out to an XML file named log.xml, or the value
of the XmlLogger.file property if present, when used as a
listener. When used as a logger, it writes all output to either the
console or to the value of -logfile. Whether used as a listener
or logger, the output is not generated until the build is complete, as it
buffers the information in order to provide timing information for task,
targets, and the project.
By default the XML file creates
a reference to an XSLT file "log.xsl" in the current directory; look in
ANT_HOME/etc for one of these. You can set the property
ant.XmlLogger.stylesheet.uri to provide a uri to a style sheet.
this can be a relative or absolute file path, or an http URL.
If you set the property to the empty string, "", no XSLT transform
is declared at all.
ant -listener org.apache.tools.ant.XmlLogger
ant -logger org.apache.tools.ant.XmlLogger -verbose -logfile build_log.xml
Acts like the default logger, except that the final success/failure message also includes the time that the build completed. For example:
BUILD SUCCESSFUL - at 16/08/05 16:24
ant -logger org.apache.tools.ant.listener.TimestampedLogger
See the Build Events section for developers.
Notes: