java - How to tell ant to build using a specific javac executable?

Question

How can I tell ant to use a specific javac executable from the command line?

I have an installation of gcj, built as part of gcc, within a library we distribute, and I'd like to have a particular piece of Java software built against that. However, it just seems to use the system-gcc, and options such as "-Dbuild.compiler" seem to want me to specify some kind of Java class rather than a filepath.

I was hoping for something similar to CC in Makefiles.

I'm sure it's something really simple, and I'm just being stupid.

---

To be clear, I'd like to avoid editing the build file myself if possible. Is there not some standard way to simply specify the compiler on the command-line to ant? I don't mind the assumption that the buildfile is "well-behaved" in some sense.

Answer 1

If you are using Ant 1.6 or higher, you can set the javac attribute fork="yes". This gives you the ability to specify the path of your executable when using jikes, jvc, gcj, sj, or whatever version of javac you are using.

  <javac srcdir="${src}"
         destdir="${build}"
         fork="yes"
         executable="/opt/java/jdk1.1/bin/javac"
         compiler="javac1.1"
  />