Execute batch file or shell script using Ant

<target name="checkOS" depends="ifOSWindows, ifOSNotWindows"/>

We then define these targets as:

<target name="ifOSWindows" if="isOSWindows">
	<antcall target="runscript.windows"/>
</target>

<target name="ifOSNotWindows" if="isOSUnix">
	<antcall target="runscript.unix"/>
</target>

We can see that, ifOSWindows and ifOSNotWindows are based on a condition, which if true calls the specific target.

If isOSWindows property,defined as –

<condition property="isOSWindows">
    <os family="windows"/>
</condition>

returns true, then ant target runscript.windows is executed.

Else, ifOSNotWindows is tested using isOSUnix property:

<condition property="isOSUnix">
   <os family="unix" />
</condition>

If this condition returns true, then runscript.unix will be called.

Following is how you can define an ant task to execute a batch script on windows:
To execute a script , exec command is used wrapped inside your target definition. <exec> executes a system command. When the os attribute is specified, then the command is only executed when Apache Ant is run on one of the specified operating systems :

<target name="runscript.windows">
   <echo>This is a Windows machine.</echo>
       <exec dir="." executable="cmd" >
	      <arg line="/c test.bat 'm4 foo.m4 > foo'"/>
   	</exec>
</target>

Following is to run a shell script on UNIX using Ant task:

<target name="runscript.unix">
   <echo>This is an Unix machine.</echo>
	   <exec dir="." executable="/bin/sh">
	     <arg path="-c test.bat 'm4 foo.m4 > foo'"/>
	</exec>
</target>

To try out this,

1. Copy the build.xml and test.bat (attached below), to your C: directory.Now open the command prompt,cursor pointing to C:\>
2. Execute the ant command and the output should be:

C:\>ant
Buildfile: build.xml

ifOSWindows:
     [echo] is windows........

runscript.windows:
     [echo] This is a Windows machine.
     [exec] **************************************
     [exec] Hello world!...Printed from batch file. "m4 foo.m4 > foo"
     [exec] **************************************

ifOSNotWindows:

checkOS:

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 0 seconds

build.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="checkOperatingSystem" default="checkOS">

	<!--checking if for windows and non windows OS-->
	<target depends="ifOSWindows, ifOSNotWindows" name="checkOS"/>

		<condition property="isOSUnix">
			<os family="unix" />
		</condition>

		<condition property="isOSWindows">
			<os family="windows" />
		</condition>

	<!-- if the OS is windows call the target run.script.windows -->
	<target name="ifOSWindows" if="isOSWindows">
		<echo>is windows........</echo>
		<antcall target="runscript.windows"/>
	</target>

	<!-- if the OS is not windows call the target run.script.unix-->
	<target name="ifOSNotWindows" if="isOSUnix">
		<echo>is unix........</echo>
		<antcall target="runscript.unix"/>
	</target>

	<target name="runscript.windows">
		<echo>This is a Windows machine.</echo>
		<exec dir="." executable="cmd" >
			<arg line="/c /test.bat 'm4 foo.m4 > foo'"/>
		</exec>

	</target>

	<target name="runscript.unix">
		<echo>This is an Unix machine.</echo>
	   	<exec dir="." executable="/bin/sh">
	     		<arg line="-c /test.bat 'm4 foo.m4 > foo'"/>
		</exec>
	</target>
</project>

test.bat

@echo **************************************
@echo Hello world!...Printed from batch file. %1%
@echo **************************************

To summarize,on native UNIX systems, you should be able to run shell scripts directly. On systems running a Unix-type shell (for example, Cygwin on Windows) execute the (command) shell

1. sh for shell scripts. Pass the shell script (plus any arguments to the script) as a single command, using -c switch.
2. cmd for batch files. Pass the batch files (plus any arguments to the script) as a single command, using /c switch.