Hi,
The overhaul of the build system should be almost complete. I restricted the
change to the HEAD branch. I don't see any particular need to roll this back
into the 4.0.x branch.
There are two main build options, toggled by the "full.dist" property.
- If the value of the property is "on", then Tomcat will be built as the
current 4.0 branch is. This target will generate a complete distribution
with all the modules, and useable on JDK 1.2.
- If the property is not defined or has a value which is not "on", then the
modules will be built conditionally, and JARs will be copied according to
which ones are available. This option is best when used in conjunction with
a recent JDK, because the requirements to build Tomcat will become very low.
The recommended platform is JDK 1.3, where only servlet.jar and regexp.jar
(version 1.2) are needed.
We could consider committing those two binaries in the CVS repository to
make it a breeze to build Tomcat (except for the problems with the Ant
<style> task of course), but I assume Craig is still against that practice.
The generated build will run on your computer, but is not guranteed to run
on JDK 1.2, among other things. Also, some optional modules may be left out
during the build, like SSL or JMX support.
Hopefully this new build script will be easy enough for the casual developer
to use.
(Since I think this meets the needs of both sides, I hope I won't get vetoed
;-))
Remy
