How can I install Apache Ant on Mac OS X?
Ant is already installed on some older versions of Mac OS X, so you should run ant -version to test if it is installed before attempting to install it.
If it is not already installed, then your best bet is to install Homebrew (brew install ant) or MacPorts (sudo port install apache-ant), and use those tools to install Apache Ant.
Alternatively, though I would highly advise using Homebrew or MacPorts instead, you can install Apache Ant manually. To do so, you would need to:
- Decompress the .tar.gz file.
- Optionally put it somewhere.
- Put the "bin" subdirectory in your path.
The commands that you would need, assuming apache-ant-1.8.1-bin.tar.gz (replace 1.8.1 with the actual version) were still in your Downloads directory, would be the following (explanatory comments included):
cd ~/Downloads # Let's get into your downloads folder.
tar -xvzf apache-ant-1.8.1-bin.tar.gz # Extract the folder
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local # Ensure that /usr/local exists
sudo cp -rf apache-ant-1.8.1-bin /usr/local/apache-ant # Copy it into /usr/local
# Add the new version of Ant to current terminal session
export PATH=/usr/local/apache-ant/bin:"$PATH"
# Add the new version of Ant to future terminal sessions
echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/apache-ant/bin:"$PATH"' >> ~/.profile
# Verify new version of ant
ant -version
For MacOS Maveriks (10.9 and perhaps later versions too), Apache Ant does not come bundled with the operating system and so must be installed manually. You can use brew to easily install ant. Simply execute the following command in a terminal window to install brew:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
It's a medium sized download which took me 10min to download and install. Just follow the process which involves installing various components. If you already have brew installed, make sure it's up to date by executing:
brew update
Once installed you can simply type:
brew install ant
Ant is now installed and available through the "ant" command in the terminal.
To test the installation, just type "ant -version" into a terminal window. You should get the following output:
Apache Ant(TM) version X.X.X compiled on MONTH DAY YEAR
Source: Error executing command 'ant' on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks when building for Android with PhoneGap/Cordova
If you are getting errors installing Brew, try uninstalling first using the command:
rm -rf /usr/local/Cellar /usr/local/.git && brew cleanup
Thanks to OrangeDog and other users for providing additional information.
If you have MacPorts installed (https://www.macports.org/), do this:
sudo port install apache-ant
If you're a homebrew user instead of macports, homebrew has an ant recipe.
brew install ant