Java – unable to build NetBeans / ant project

I inherited a project originally written in NetBeans and built it using ant I am an eclipse user and have used ant, but I don't fully understand the specific way NetBeans uses ant I know it uses build impl XML file (imported into build. XML), but I'm confused about how the IDE generates / updates the file

I made some small changes to several classes and wanted to build a jar I tried from build XML and build impl XML runs the "clean" and "jar" targets in eclipse, but gets the following error:

BUILD Failed
C:\Devel\Projects\MyProject\nbproject\build-impl.xml:661: The following error occurred while executing this line:
C:\Devel\Projects\MyProject\nbproject\build-impl.xml:337: Compile Failed; see the compiler error output for details.

Line 661 is the j2seproject3 element in this target:

<target depends="init,deps-jar,-pre-pre-compile,-pre-compile,-copy-persistence-xml,-compile-depend" if="have.sources" name="-do-compile">
    <j2seproject3:javac gensrcdir="${build.generated.sources.dir}"/>
    <copy todir="${build.classes.dir}">
        <fileset dir="${src.dir}" excludes="${build.classes.excludes},${excludes}" includes="${includes}"/>
    </copy>
</target>

Line 337 is the javac line for this target:

<target depends="-init-ap-cmdline-properties" name="-init-macrodef-javac-without-processors" unless="ap.supported.internal">
    <macrodef name="javac" uri="http://www.netbeans.org/ns/j2se-project/3">
        <attribute default="${src.dir}" name="srcdir"/>
        <attribute default="${build.classes.dir}" name="destdir"/>
        <attribute default="${javac.classpath}" name="classpath"/>
        <attribute default="${javac.processorpath}" name="processorpath"/>
        <attribute default="${build.generated.sources.dir}/ap-source-output" name="apgeneratedsrcdir"/>
        <attribute default="${includes}" name="includes"/>
        <attribute default="${excludes}" name="excludes"/>
        <attribute default="${javac.debug}" name="debug"/>
        <attribute default="${empty.dir}" name="sourcepath"/>
        <attribute default="${empty.dir}" name="gensrcdir"/>
        <element name="customize" optional="true"/>
        <sequential>
            <property location="${build.dir}/empty" name="empty.dir"/>
            <mkdir dir="${empty.dir}"/>
            <javac debug="@{debug}" deprecation="${javac.deprecation}" destdir="@{destdir}" encoding="${source.encoding}" excludes="@{excludes}" executable="${platform.javac}" fork="yes" includeantruntime="false" includes="@{includes}" source="${javac.source}" sourcepath="@{sourcepath}" srcdir="@{srcdir}" target="${javac.target}" tempdir="${java.io.tmpdir}">
                <src>
                    <dirset dir="@{gensrcdir}" erroronmissingdir="false">
                        <include name="*"/>
                    </dirset>
                </src>
                <classpath>
                    <path path="@{classpath}"/>
                </classpath>
                <compilerarg line="${endorsed.classpath.cmd.line.arg}"/>
                <compilerarg line="${javac.compilerargs}"/>
                <customize/>
            </javac>
        </sequential>
    </macrodef>
</target>

I don't know what these two goals are and why they fail I downloaded netbeans7 and hoped that building it there would succeed, but I would get the same error

Can I safely remove these targets from the build? Do I need to update project Properties file?

Any help that helps to build this is appreciated

Solution

Any other mistakes? What happened after that? Is it a pile of Java compilation errors, or is the < javac > task itself not executed?

< macrodef > is defining a new macro named < javac >, which will execute instead of the original < javac > "Wait a minute!", You said, is there already a < javac > task?

Yes, it looks like it's redefining it I usually think this is a bad thing - especially because it doesn't take the same parameters as < javac > Why not call it < netbeansc > or something?

@Symbols are a bit like attributes They are the parameters you pass to the macro

You have the following points:

<j2seproject3:javac
    gensrcdir="${build.generated.sources.dir}"/>

This is called a macro that almost runs original < javac > Compile the task I will ensure that all the properties shown below are defined

<javac
    debug="${javac.debug}"
    deprecation="${javac.deprecation}"
    destdir="${build.classes.dir}"
    encoding="${source.encoding}"
    excludes="${excludes}"
    executable="${platform.javac}"
    fork="yes"
    includeantruntime="false"
    includes="${includes}"
    source="${javac.source}"
    sourcepath="${empty.dir}"
    srcdir="${srcdir}"
    target="${javac.target}"
    tempdir="${java.io.tmpdir}">
    <src>
       <dirset dir="${empty.dir}"
            erroronmissingdir="false">
            <include name="*"/>
       </dirset>
   </src>
   <classpath>
       <path path="${javac.classpath"/>
   </classpath>
   <compilerarg line="${endorsed.classpath.cmd.line.arg}"/>
   <compilerarg line="${javac.compilerargs}"/>
   <customize/>