How do I associate my custom ANT builder with the project instead of the Eclipse workspace?

Question

I'd like to associate some ANT targets with my project's build in Eclipse.
No problem, I create a custom ANT builder, specify targets to run, all is well.
But then I realize that the builder information is saved in the workspace instead of the project! Why is that, and how do I fix it?

The goal is that anyone who imports the project in a new Eclipse workspace can build it without adding the builder manually. This means that I should have the builder configuration under source control, which means it should belong to the project, not the per-user workspace.
Maybe I'm just missing something?

There is a bit of confusion, it seems, because builders look like launchers, but they are stored in a different directory. Simply creating the .settings dir and copying the xml doesn't help...

When I create the .externalToolBuilders directory under .settings and copy the launcher/builder there, I get this:

Solution: I restarted from scratch, deleted the project-specific data in the workspace directory, but left the .settings dir in the project dir. Re-created the builder/launcher, and Eclipse automatically created it in the correct place, and also added it to source control.

Answer 1

Indeed, your launcher (Run/Debug launchers or External Builders launchers) are saved by default in the workspace.

<workspace>\myProject\.externalToolsBuilder) 

You can move that directory ( .externalToolsBuilder ) manually in the .settings directory of your project.
And uncheck the option "Delete configurations when associated resource is deleted" as mentioned in this SO answer .

With a full refresh of the project (or even a delete, followed by a reimport), your local version of .externalToolsBuilder should be taken into account.

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For the Debug/Run launchers (not your case), you also can (since Eclipse3.4) use one of the Import wizards:

File > Import

type launch configuration, and you can import said configuration directly within your project.