Apache Ant is one of the more venerable Java-based build automation tools, originating from the Apache Tomcat project in 2000. Its strengths are portability, flexibility, and simplicity. It does not impose coding conventions or project structures, and its build files can easily be transferred to other platforms because they inherit the Java platform’s independence. By the same token, Ant files can be difficult to understand and grasp immediately.
Ant does not have built-in support for dependency management; rather, Ant’s dependency management is handled by Apache Ivy, a sub-project that integrates with Ant.