Does Intellij IDEA support debugging a project built with ant?

Question

This project is using Ant as its build system. Can I debug the project when I run it via Ant?

Ant has nothing to do with it. Ant is a build tool. Debugging is at run time. — Boris the Spider, Nov 28 '14 at 23:13
@BoristheSpider if you are working with a complex buildfile, debugging it step by step could help you to understand how is it actually building your project. — Jaime Hablutzel, Aug 16 '16 at 07:54
I'm a big fan of IntelliJ IDEA but specifically for this task Eclipse does a great job — Jaime Hablutzel, Aug 16 '16 at 07:56

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

6

Ant is mainly used for building, not for running Java apps.
But OK, I assume you're running your app using the ant Java task.

Ant Java task

If so, yes, you can do that by using remote debugging.

Remote debugging a Java application

In fact you can debug any Java app like that.
Apps started through ant are still Java apps.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Community

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answered Nov 28 '14 at 23:13

peter.petrov

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Oh of course! I shouldn't be running my app through ant, just building the app. This is exactly what the knowledge I needed. Thank you. – calvin Nov 28 '14 at 23:21
And how do you add the agentlib when running an ant task? I can't see a place to specify JVM arguments. Edit: Ah I see, right click the Ant task in the "Ant Build" panel, `Properties`, `Execution`, `Ant command line` – Michel Jung Jun 06 '17 at 12:12

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 02 '18 at 07:35

Include this line in your java runtime task, in your build.xml:

<jvmarg value="-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=5005"/>

So for instance if it's ant junit task, it will be like:

<target name="test" depends="test-compile">
    <junit showoutput="yes" fork="true">
        <jvmarg value="-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=5005"/>
    </junit>
</target>

Then run your target

ant clean test

Ant test will wait until we connect a debugger. It will show the output:

test:
    [junit] Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 5005

Then simply create, run a remote run/debug configuration in Intellij (or in your preferred IDE).

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

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There is a specialized IDEA plugin for debugging ant scripts sources with breakpoints:

https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7195?pr=idea

https://github.com/opticyclic/antdebugger/

Or the same approach can be used as for ant debugging in eclipse.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

Community

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answered Jun 22 '16 at 12:07

Vadzim

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Isn't this to debug just buiild.xml? – Gayan Weerakutti May 02 '18 at 07:00
@reversiblean, yes, this answer is about debugging ant scripts in build.xml, not the project that is built with them. It appears, I was tricked by vague wording of the question. – Vadzim May 02 '18 at 07:12

Does Intellij IDEA support debugging a project built with ant?

3 Answers3