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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Build Automation
  4. Java Build Tools
  5. Apache Ant vs Git

Apache Ant vs Git

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Apache Ant
Apache Ant
Stacks250
Followers151
Votes7
GitHub Stars449
Forks449
Git
Git
Stacks343.7K
Followers184.2K
Votes6.6K
GitHub Stars57.1K
Forks26.9K

Apache Ant vs Git: What are the differences?

Apache Ant: Java based build tool. Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code; Git: Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system. Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

Apache Ant can be classified as a tool in the "Java Build Tools" category, while Git is grouped under "Version Control System".

"Flexible" is the primary reason why developers consider Apache Ant over the competitors, whereas "Distributed version control system" was stated as the key factor in picking Git.

Apache Ant and Git are both open source tools. It seems that Git with 27.9K GitHub stars and 16.1K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Apache Ant with 244 GitHub stars and 255 GitHub forks.

Netflix, Asana, and CircleCI are some of the popular companies that use Git, whereas Apache Ant is used by LinkedIn, Webedia, and Starter Inc.. Git has a broader approval, being mentioned in 3891 company stacks & 4632 developers stacks; compared to Apache Ant, which is listed in 24 company stacks and 12 developer stacks.

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Detailed Comparison

Apache Ant
Apache Ant
Git
Git

Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code.

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

The most complete Java build and deployment tool available.;Platform neutral and can handle platform specific properties such as file separators;Can be used to perform platform specific tasks such as modifying the modified time of a file using 'touch' command;Scripts are written using plain XML. If you are already familiar with XML, you can learn pretty quickly;Automate complicated repetitive tasks;Interface to develop custom tasks;Can be easily invoked from the command line and it can integrate with free and commercial IDEs
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Statistics
GitHub Stars
449
GitHub Stars
57.1K
GitHub Forks
449
GitHub Forks
26.9K
Stacks
250
Stacks
343.7K
Followers
151
Followers
184.2K
Votes
7
Votes
6.6K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 4
    Flexible
  • 1
    Easy to write own java-build-hooks
  • 1
    Easy to learn
  • 1
    Simple
Cons
  • 1
    Old and not widely used anymore
  • 1
    Slow
Pros
  • 1429
    Distributed version control system
  • 1053
    Efficient branching and merging
  • 959
    Fast
  • 843
    Open source
  • 726
    Better than svn
Cons
  • 16
    Hard to learn
  • 11
    Inconsistent command line interface
  • 9
    Easy to lose uncommitted work
  • 8
    Worst documentation ever possibly made
  • 5
    Awful merge handling

What are some alternatives to Apache Ant, Git?

Apache Maven

Apache Maven

Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.

Gradle

Gradle

Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.

Bazel

Bazel

Bazel is a build tool that builds code quickly and reliably. It is used to build the majority of Google's software, and thus it has been designed to handle build problems present in Google's development environment.

Mercurial

Mercurial

Mercurial is dedicated to speed and efficiency with a sane user interface. It is written in Python. Mercurial's implementation and data structures are designed to be fast. You can generate diffs between revisions, or jump back in time within seconds.

SVN (Subversion)

SVN (Subversion)

Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; and its ability to support the needs of a wide variety of users and projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations.

Pants

Pants

Pants is a build system for Java, Scala and Python. It works particularly well for a source code repository that contains many distinct projects.

Plastic SCM

Plastic SCM

Plastic SCM is a distributed version control designed for big projects. It excels on branching and merging, graphical user interfaces, and can also deal with large files and even file-locking (great for game devs). It includes "semantic" features like refactor detection to ease diffing complex refactors.

Pijul

Pijul

Pijul is a free and open source (AGPL 3) distributed version control system. Its distinctive feature is to be based on a sound theory of patches, which makes it easy to learn and use, and really distributed.

JitPack

JitPack

JitPack is an easy to use package repository for Gradle/Sbt and Maven projects. We build GitHub projects on demand and provides ready-to-use packages.

SBT

SBT

It is similar to Java's Maven and Ant. Its main features are: Native support for compiling Scala code and integrating with many Scala test frameworks.

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