java - ant debugging in eclipse

Question

I would like to know about the debugging capabilities of ANT using eclipse. Basically I have an ANT build script written by a colleague and I wanted to step through each target to see what are the various tasks that are beings called.

Answer 1

You can do this in Eclipse with these steps:

1. Be sure to open your build file in the ANT editor (right click on build file -> Open with -> Ant editor).
2. Double click in the left margin of your build file where you want breakpoint.
3. Open the Ant view (Window -> Show view -> Ant).
4. If the build file isn't in the view then you can simply add it.
5. Once added right click on the ant target you want to run and select Debug as -> Ant build
6. The Debug perspective should open up and the process should stop at your breakpoint where you can step through it
7. Sometimes it is required to set the arguments at the time of debugging. It can be set by selecting: Debug as -> Ant build. And then need to select Arguments. And then values can be entered as: -Dprop.name=property value