How To Install Apache Ant on Debian 10

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Ant on Debian 10. For those of you who didn’t know, Apache Ant is a Java library and command-line tool and it supplies a number of built-in tasks allowing you to compile, assemble, test, and run Java applications. Ant can also be used effectively to build non-Java applications, for instance, C or C++ applications. Ant is extremely flexible and does not impose coding conventions or directory layouts on the Java projects which adopt it as a build tool.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Apache Ant on a Debian 10 (Buster).

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Debian 10 (Buster).
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Apache Ant on Debian 10 Buster

Step 1. Before running the tutorial below, it’s important to make sure your system is up to date by running the following apt commands in the terminal:

sudo apt update

Step 2. Installing Java.

Apache Ant is created with Java technology. So it requires that the system on which it runs has Java installed correctly. Run the commands below to install Java:

sudo apt install openjdk-11-jre

Confirm the installed version of Java:

java -version

Step 3. Installing Apache Ant on Debian 10.

• Install Apache Ant from the official source.

Now download and install Apache Ant from the official website:

wget https://downloads.apache.org/ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.10.10-bin.zip

Next, unzip the downloaded file:

unzip apache-ant-1.10.10-bin.zip

Now move the generated folder to /usr/local:

sudo mv apache-ant-1.10.10/ /usr/local/ant

After that, a bash configuration file must be edited so that Ant can be run from any document:

sudo nano /etc/profile

Add the following file:

ANT_HOME="/usr/local/ant"
PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/ant/bin"
export ANT_HOME
export PATH

Then, apply the changes with the following command:

source /etc/profile

Finally, check the installed version:

ant -version

• Install Apache Ant via Snap.

Run the following command to install Snap packages:

sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install core

sudo snap install ant --classic

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Apache Ant. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the latest version of Apache Ant on the Debian system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Apache Ant website.