To configure Ant Farm, access Global Options -> Plugin Options -> Ant Farm -> Build Options.
Ant Farm can be configured to run builds within the current JVM or outside of the current JVM using a shell script. Using the current JVM is faster but large build tasks may not have enough memory to execute properly. Also, complex Ant scripts that require multiple external resources might not run properly from the current JVM.
If you experience OutOfMemory exceptions when running builds in the same JVM, increase the size of the java heap when running jEdit, or use an external script. To increase the heap size, use the -mx<size>m java command line option when starting jEdit, where <size> indicates the amount of memory to be assigned.
When you attempt to run an Ant build without having configured you build preferences, you will be prompted to select whether you wish to use the current JVM or an external script.
If you choose to run Ant builds within the current JVM, additional classpath elements can be specified when needed. This allows Ant to locate classes required for execution. This is useful when using custom tasks and external libraries not loaded by JEdit.
To run Ant builds outside of the current JVM, specify the build file you wish to use. Default build files for multiple operating systems are included with the binary distribution of the Apache Ant project.
Additionally, you can specify global properties that will be passed to Ant. Access Global Options -> Plugin Options -> Ant Farm -> Properties, and enter the name/value pairs for the properties you need. Ant Farm will prompt you for runtime properties each time you run a target. To turn this feature off, click Do not prompt for properties when running targets. Properties specified at target runtime are not added to the global properties list.
Ant Farm can automatically load build.xml files from the root of any projects you manage via the Project Viewer. To enable this, check Load build files from the Project Viewer plugin, make sure the Project Viewer is docked so it starts immediately with jEdit and restart jEdit. Now, whenever you switch to a project that contains a file named build.xml, it will be loaded into Ant Farm.
Ant Farm also automatically loads any file named build.xml that is opened for editing.
When running an Ant target, the name of each task is prepended to the output text by default. To avoid this and print output in emacs friendly mode, check Produce logging information without adornments (Emacs mode).
Ant Farm can save all currently changed buffers whenever you execute a target. To turn this feature on, check Save all buffers before running a target.