How to avoid copying dependencies with Ivy

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Here’s my standard Java build file that creates an executable jar.

The objective is to manage project specific stuff via a combination of ANT properties and an ivy.xml file for the 3rd-party dependencies.

<project xmlns:ivy="antlib:org.apache.ivy.ant" name="demo" default="build">

  <property name="src.dir" location="src"/>
  <property name="build.dir" location="build"/>
  <property name="dist.dir" location="dist"/>
  <property name="dist.jar" location="${dist.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar"/>
  <property name="dist.main.class" value="HelloWorld"/>

  <target name="retrieve">
    <ivy:resolve/>
    <ivy:cachepath pathid="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2609465/build.path" conf="build"/>
    <ivy:cachepath pathid="runtime.path" conf="runtime"/>
  </target>

  <target name="compile" depends="retrieve">
    <mkdir dir="${build.dir}/classes"/>
    <javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${build.dir}/classes" classpathref="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2609465/build.path"/>
  </target>

  <target name="build" depends="compile">
    <ivy:retrieve pattern="${dist.dir}/lib/[artifact].[ext]"/>

    <manifestclasspath property="jar.classpath" jarfile="${dist.jar}">
      <classpath>
        <fileset dir="${dist.dir}/lib" includes="*.jar"/>
      </classpath>
    </manifestclasspath>

    <jar destfile="${dist.jar}" basedir="${build.dir}/classes">
      <manifest>
        <attribute name="Main-Class" value="${dist.main.class}"/>
        <attribute name="Class-Path" value="${jar.classpath}"/>
      </manifest>
    </jar>
  </target>

  <target name="clean">
    <delete dir="${build.dir}"/>
    <delete dir="${dist.dir}"/>
  </target>

</project>

As you’ve discovered in the Ivy docu, the cachepath Ivy task is used to manage two ANT paths. One for the build dependencies the other for the run-time dependencies of the executable jar.

The real power of Ivy is in something called configurations. I found it difficult to grasp initially until I realised it was simple a logical grouping of jars that I can define for my project. This example has two configurations:

  • build
  • runtime

Here’s the ivy file demonstrating how dependencies can be associated with configurations:

<ivy-module version="2.0">
    <info organisation="com.myspotontheweb" module="demo"/>
    <configurations>
        <conf name="build" description="Libraries needed to for compilation"/>
        <conf name="runtime" extends="build" description="Libraries that need to be included with project jar" />
    </configurations>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency org="commons-lang" name="commons-lang" rev="2.0" conf="build->default"/>
        <dependency org="commons-cli" name="commons-cli" rev="1.0" conf="runtime->default"/>
    </dependencies>
</ivy-module>

In conclusion I hope this example helps in understanding Ivy. I like the way it concentrates on only one thing, the management of 3rd-party dependencies.

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