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Apache Ant

179
153
+ 1
7
Pants

23
85
+ 1
30
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Apache Ant vs Pants: What are the differences?

Developers describe Apache Ant as "Java based build tool". Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code. On the other hand, Pants is detailed as "Build system by Twitter, Foursquare, and Square". Pants is a build system for Java, Scala and Python. It works particularly well for a source code repository that contains many distinct projects.

Apache Ant and Pants can be categorized as "Java Build" tools.

Some of the features offered by Apache Ant are:

  • The most complete Java build and deployment tool available.
  • Platform neutral and can handle platform specific properties such as file separators
  • Can be used to perform platform specific tasks such as modifying the modified time of a file using 'touch' command

On the other hand, Pants provides the following key features:

  • Builds Java, Scala, and Python.
  • Adding support for new languages is straightforward.
  • Supports code generation: thrift, protocol buffers, custom code generators.

"Flexible" is the top reason why over 3 developers like Apache Ant, while over 5 developers mention "Creates deployable packages" as the leading cause for choosing Pants.

Apache Ant and Pants are both open source tools. Pants with 1.16K GitHub stars and 333 forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than Apache Ant with 247 GitHub stars and 253 GitHub forks.

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Pros of Apache Ant
Pros of Pants
  • 4
    Flexible
  • 1
    Simple
  • 1
    Easy to learn
  • 1
    Easy to write own java-build-hooks
  • 6
    Creates deployable packages
  • 4
    Runs on Linux
  • 4
    Runs on OS X
  • 4
    BUILD files
  • 4
    Runs tests
  • 4
    Scales
  • 2
    Flexibility
  • 2
    Extensible

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Cons of Apache Ant
Cons of Pants
  • 1
    Slow
  • 1
    Old and not widely used anymore
    Be the first to leave a con

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    What is Apache Ant?

    Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code.

    What is Pants?

    Pants is a build system for Java, Scala and Python. It works particularly well for a source code repository that contains many distinct projects.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Apache Ant?
    What companies use Pants?
    See which teams inside your own company are using Apache Ant or Pants.
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    What tools integrate with Apache Ant?
    What tools integrate with Pants?
      No integrations found

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      Blog Posts

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      What are some alternatives to Apache Ant and Pants?
      Eclipse
      Standard Eclipse package suited for Java and plug-in development plus adding new plugins; already includes Git, Marketplace Client, source code and developer documentation. Click here to file a bug against Eclipse Platform.
      Gradle
      Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.
      Apache Maven
      Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.
      Apache Tomcat
      Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.
      Jenkins
      In a nutshell Jenkins CI is the leading open-source continuous integration server. Built with Java, it provides over 300 plugins to support building and testing virtually any project.
      See all alternatives