sample build.xml to build a war and deploy to tomcat

buildwar

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="ffn" default="main" basedir=".">

  <!-- Properties-->
  <property name="tomcat" location="/usr/share/tomcat7" />
  <property name="app-name" value="ffn" />
  <property name="war-name" value="ffn.war" />
  <property name="src.dir" location="src" />
  <property name="dist.dir" location="dist" />
  <property name="build.dir" location="build/classes" />
  <property name="docs.dir" location="docs" />

  <!-- Deletes the existing build, docs and dist directory-->
  <target name="clean">
    <delete dir="${build.dir}" />
    <delete dir="${docs.dir}" />
    <delete dir="${dist.dir}" />
  </target>

  <!-- Creates the  build, docs and dist directory-->
  <target name="makedir">
    <mkdir dir="${dist.dir}" />
    <mkdir dir="${build.dir}" />
    <mkdir dir="${docs.dir}" />
  </target>

  <!-- Compiles the java code-->
  <target name="compile" depends="clean, makedir">
    <javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${build.dir}">
      <classpath>
        <fileset dir="lib">
          <include name="*" />
        </fileset>
        <fileset dir="/usr/share/tomcat7/lib">
          <include name="*" />
        </fileset>
      </classpath>
    </javac>
  </target>

  <!-- Creates Javadoc-->
  <target name="docs" depends="compile">
    <javadoc packagenames="src" sourcepath="${src.dir}" destdir="${docs.dir}">
      <!-- Define which files / directory should get included, we include all -->
      <fileset dir="${src.dir}">
        <include name="**" />
      </fileset>
    </javadoc>
  </target>

  <!-- Creates the deployable jar file-->
  <target name="jar" depends="compile">
    <jar destfile="${dist.dir}/HelloWorld.jar" basedir="${build.dir}" />
  </target>

  <!-- Creates the deployable WAR file-->
  <target name="war" depends="compile">
    <war destfile="${dist.dir}/${war-name}" basedir="${dist.dir}" needxmlfile='false'>
      <lib dir="lib" />
      <classes dir="${build.dir}" />
    </war>
  </target>

  <target name="deploy">
    <exec executable="${tomcat}/bin/shutdown.sh"
          failonerror="true"
          osfamily="unix"/>
    <delete dir="${tomcat}/webapps/${app-name}" />
    <delete file="${tomcat}/webapps/${war-name}" />
    <copy file="${dist.dir}/${war-name}" todir="${tomcat}/webapps" />
    <exec executable="${tomcat}/bin/startup.sh"
          failonerror="true"
          osfamily="unix"/>
  </target>

  <target name="main" depends="compile, war">
    <description>Main target</description>
  </target>

</project>

Adapted from:

• www.vogella.com/articles/ApacheAnt/article.html
• https://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/war.html