How To Install Apache Ant on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Ant on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Apache Ant™ is a Java library and command-line tool whose mission is to drive processes described in build files as targets and extension points dependent upon each other. The main known usage of Ant is the build of Java applications. Ant supplies a number of built-in tasks allowing them 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. More generally, Ant can be used to pilot any type of process which can be described in terms of targets and tasks.

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 Apache Ant on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• 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 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing Java.

Run the commands below to install Java:

sudo apt install openjdk-11-jre

Check that Java is running, showing the installed version:

$ java --version
openjdk 11.0.8 2020-07-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu120.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu120.04, mixed mode, sharing)

Step 3. Installing Apache Ant on Ubuntu 20.04.

• Install Apache Ant using Snaps

sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install ant --classic

• Install Apache Ant using Apt

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ant

• Install Apache Ant from Source

Now we download the lasted version of Apache Ant from the official page:

wget https://mirror-hk.koddos.net/apache//ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.10.9-bin.tar.gz
sudo tar -xf apache-ant-1.10.9-bin.tar.gz -C /usr/local

Next, create a symbolic link to the Ant distribution by running the commands below:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/apache-ant-1.10.9/ /usr/local/ant

After that, create a ant.sh file at /etc/profile.d folder:

sudo nano /etc/profile.d/ant.sh

export ANT_HOME=/usr/local/ant
export PATH=${ANT_HOME}/bin:${PATH}

Save and exit also activates the above environment variables:

source /etc/profile

You can verify the Ant version by running the commands:

$ ant -version
Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.9 compiled on October 26 2019

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Apache Ant. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing Apache Ant on your Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Apache Ant website.