Ant Javac Compilation Output

Question

I am trying to compile java files from a java program using org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Javac and to print its output on screen.

See the below code snippet for your reference,

Javac javaCompile = (Javac) webServiceProject.createTask("javac");
javaCompile.setSrcdir("D:\\Java\\src");
javaCompile.setDestdir("D:\\Java\\classes");
try{
    javaCompile.execute();
}catch (BuildException buildException){
    FacesMessage message = new FacesMessage(buildException.getMessage());
    message.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_FATAL);
    FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, message);
}

When i compile the files with the above code and if any compilation error exists, i get a message "Compile failed; see the compiler error output for details." .

I don't know how to retrieve the compilation error and show it as an output on screen. Can anyone suggest how to retrieve it?

Answer 1

The below code did the trick and this retrieved me the compiler error.

Javac javaCompile = (Javac) webServiceProject.createTask("javac");
javaCompile.createCompilerArg().setValue("-Xstdout");
String filePath = basePath + "resources" + File.separator
        + "errorlog.log";
javaCompile.createCompilerArg().setFile(new File(filePath));
javaCompile.setNowarn(true);

Answer 2

Ignoring the issue of whether you should be compiling code in a JSF application ...

I believe that Ant sends compilation output to the logger. So to get hold of it, you will need to configure the logger to send the relevant log events to a file ... or something.

Answer 3

Try changing the build.compiler setting. Ant was having trouble finding the compiler I had specified, "org.eclipse.jdt.core.JDTCompilerAdapter" - changing it to "modern" allowed me to compile.

This was tricky to track down. I'm not sure why there was no output.