Ant sample build.xml

build.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="the project" default="compile" basedir=".">

	<property name="src.dir" location="src" />
	<property name="bin.dir" location="bin" />
	<property name="lib.dir" location="lib" />

	<path id="classpath">
		<fileset dir="${lib.dir}" includes="**/*.jar" />
	</path>

	<target name="init">
		<!-- Create the time stamp -->
		<tstamp />
		<!-- Create the build directory structure used by compile -->
		<mkdir dir="${bin.dir}" />
	</target>


	<target name="clean" description="remove intermediate files">
		<delete dir="${bin.dir}" />
	</target>

	<target name="compile" depends="init" description="compile the Java source code to class files">
		<javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${bin.dir}" classpathref="classpath" />
	</target>

</project>

could you explain the need for tstamp in 'init' target?

Hi @xavychan, I don't recall anymore but it looks like something that can be omitted.

Okay, thanks @gpolitis