Ant Tasks Reference Guide

Owned by S. Ali Tokmen
Last updated: Dec 10, 2022

These are the various XML configuration elements that you can use to configure the Cargo Ant tasks. Make sure you also check the examples which show how to use them.

Top level configuration elements

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<action>

Action to execute. These can be:

  • Container actions: configure, start, restart, run or stop
  • Deployer actions: deploy, undeploy or redeploy
  • Cargo Daemon actions: daemon-start or daemon-stop

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No default

<containerId>

Id of the container to use. Valid values can be found in the description page for each container

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No default

<containerType>

The container's type. Valid values are installed, embedded and remote

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Default value is installed

<home>

Location where the container is installed. If specified in conjunction with the <zipUrlInstaller> element, it will override the home directory defined by the installer

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No default

If the user has not defined any home nor <zipUrlInstaller> element then the Ant task will automatically attempt to download the container using the URL used by its tests (see the Tested On section of each container).

<zipUrlInstaller>

Defines the location of a container distribution zip that will be downloaded and installed

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No default

If the user has not defined any home nor <zipUrlInstaller> element then the Ant task will automatically attempt to download the container using the URL used by its tests (see the Tested On section of each container).

<timeout>

The timeout after which Cargo reports an error if the container is not started or stopped

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120000 ms (2 minutes)

<systemProperties>

List of <key>value</key> pairs to be passed as System properties to the container when it is started.


You can also use the <systemPropertiesFile> element to load system properties from a file.

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No default

<extraClasspath>

Additional classpath entries for the classpath that will be used to start the containers.

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No default

<sharedClasspath>

Classpath entries for the classpath that will be shared the applications deployed in a container. Shared application classpath deployment is only available for local containers which support shared Application Classpaths.

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No default

<log>

Path to a file where Cargo logs are saved

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Logs to the Ant console if no log file is specified

<output>

Path to a file where container logs are saved

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Logs to the file specified by the <log> element or to the Ant console if no such file has been specified

<append>

If true, then the file specified by <output> will not be erased across different runs

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false

<configuration>

Definition of a Configuration

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Defaults to a standalone configuration if the container is of type local and a runtime one if it's of type remote

<daemon>

Additional configuration that is used when deploying with the Cargo Daemon.

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For more information, please read: Cargo Daemon.

<configuration> elements

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<type>

Configuration's type. Valid values are standalone, existing and runtime

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standalone

<home>

For standalone configuration this is the location where Cargo will create the configuration and for existing configuration this is where it is located

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No default

<properties>

Values to use for various Configuration properties.


You can also use the <propertiesFile> element to load configuration properties from a file.

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Default configuration properties

Note that these configuration properties can also be overriden using Java properties; for example:

ant -Dcargo.servlet.port=8082

<deployables>

A list of deployables that are going to be deployed in the container when it is started or when deploy / undeploy is called.

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No default

<fileConfigs>

List of Configuration files that are to be added to a local container's configuration. Each file is specified using a <fileConfig> element. Cargo token replacement is applied to the files and any existing file is overwritten.

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No default

<files>

List of files that are to be added to a local container's configuration. Each file is specified using a <file> element.

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No default

<xmlReplacements>

Values to use for various XML replacements.

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No default

<users>List of users to be created in container configuration.

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No default

<datasources>List of datasources to be created in container configuration.

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No default

<fileConfigs> elements

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<file>

The configuration file or directory containing configuration files.

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No default

<todir>

The target directory, relative to configuration home, where the file should be copied

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If not specified, the file will be copied to the configuration's home directory

<tofile>

The target file name to use

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The original file name

<file> elements

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<file>

The file, or directory, to add

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No default

<todir>

The target directory, relative to configuration home, where the file should be copied

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If not specified, the file will be copied to the configuration's home directory

<tofile>

The target file name to use

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The original file name

<configfile>

Indicates if Cargo token replacement should be applied (true) when copying. Do not use this option on a non-ascii file as it will corrupt it!

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false

<overwrite>

If any existing file should be overwritten or not

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true

<deployable> elements

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<type>

Deployable type, i.e. war, ear, ejb, etc.

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No default

<file>

The deployable file.

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No default

<pingURL>

URL on which to ping the deployed or undeployed application (to check if deployment or undeployment is successful), that should return an HTTP OK response only after the deployment is complete. If not set, the deployed or undeployed application will not be pinged, hence the deployment considered as complete as soon as the target server's method returns successfully.

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No default

<pingTimeout>

If <pingURL> is set, the number of milliseconds after which the ping fails the build if still not successful.

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20000 (i.e., 20 seconds)

<properties>

User-defined properties of a deployable.

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No default

<properties> elements

 Deployable Type

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<context>

WAR

The context name to use when deploying the web application.

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Default's to the file name without the extension

<war>

WAR

The path of the WAR being deployed.

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Default's to the file name without the extension

<ear>

EAR

The path of the EAR being deployed.

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Default's to the file name without the extension

<name>

EAR

The name of EAR deployable (it can be anything, there's no special rule).

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Default's to the file name without the extension

<ejb>

EJB

The path of the EJB being deployed.

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Default's to the file name without the extension

About WAR contexts

Many containers have their specific files for redefining context roots (Tomcat has context.xml, JBoss has jboss-web.xml, etc.). If your WAR has such a file, the server will most probably use the context root defined in that file instead of the one you specify using the CARGO deployer.

<zipUrlInstaller> elements

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<url>

URL from which to download the container's ZIP or TAR.GZ file.

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No default

<downloadDir>

Directory in which the zipUrlInstaller should download the container's ZIP or TAR.GZ file.

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${java.io.tmpdir}/cargo/installs

<extractDir>

Directory in which the zipUrlInstaller should extract the container's ZIP or TAR.GZ file.

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${project.build.directory}/cargo/installs

<proxy>

Proxy server settings, if required.

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No default

<proxy> elements (under the zipUrlInstaller element)

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<host>

Proxy host name or IP address.

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No default

<port>

Proxy port.

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Very probably 80

<user>

User name to connect to the proxy server.

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No default

<password>

Password to connect to the proxy server.

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No default

<user> elementsDescriptionMandatory?Default value
<name>User name.

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No default
<password>User password.

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No default
<roles>

List of roles which should be assigned to user.

Example of roles configuration:

<roles>
    <role>cargo</role>
</roles>

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No default

<datasource> elementsDescriptionMandatory?Default value
<jndiName>JNDI name where to find this DataSource.

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No default
<connectionType>Type of this DataSource, for example: javax.sql.XADataSource

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No default
<transactionSupport>Transaction support of the DataSource, for example: XA_TRANSACTION

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No default
<driverClass>The class name of the driver, for example: org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver

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No default
<url>DataSource connection URL.

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No default
<username>DataSource username.

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No default
<password>DataSource password.

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Empty string
<id>Identifier used in configuration files.

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No default
<connectionProperties>Extra properties passed to the DataSource.

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No default

Daemon configuration

The Cargo Daemon is a Web-based application that uses the Cargo API to configure, start and stop containers on a remote machine. The daemon is meant to be listening 24/7, to allow users to deploy new containers and web applications at their command. For more information, please read: Cargo Daemon.

Container configuration for the Daemon

For the Ant tasks, the "daemonized server" is actually a local container with a hostname that points to a remote machine. This implies that:

  • You should not set the container type to a remote container nor add any remote deployers to the configuration; but instead define the container as a local container (with either a standalone or existing configuration)
  • When you define the home paths for the container and the configuration, remember these paths are for the machine where the Daemon is running (and, preferably, use absolute paths)

When you call daemon-start, the Ant tasks will do the following:

  • If an installer is defined:
    • Download the archive locally
    • Send the archive over to the machine running the Daemon
    • Instruct the Daemon to extract the archive
  • If a standalone local configuration is defined, instruct the Daemon to create it
  • In all cases:
  • Finally, instruct the Daemon to start the container

<daemon> elements

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<classpaths>

A list of <classpath>myclasspath</classpath> items, that will be added by the JVM launcher when starting a container.

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No default

<properties>

A list of properties used to configure the Cargo Daemon.

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No default

<properties> elements

Description

Mandatory?

Default value

<cargo.daemon.url>

URL to connect with the daemon.

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No default

<cargo.daemon.handleid>

The handle id to register this container with.

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No default

<cargo.daemon.autostart>

When set to true, the dameon will automatically restart the container if the daemon notices it is stopped.

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false

<cargo.daemon.username>Username used when authenticating against the daemon host(thumbs down)admin
<cargo.daemon.password>Password used when authenticating against the daemon host(thumbs down)Empty string