Apache Ant,是一个将软件编译、测试、部署等步骤联系在一起加以自动化的一个工具，大多用于Java环境中的软件开发。由">Apache软件基金会所提供。
用户群：大多数的Java设计都被用于管理大量信息流，例如纽约州就使用Apache Ant去管理美国最大的青年计划，每天可以8206.html">实时更新超过25万学生的记录。
Apache Ant is a Java library and command-line tool who's mission is to drive processes described in build files as targets and extension points dependent upon each other. The main known usage of Ant is the build of Java applications. Ant supplies a number of built-in tasks allowing to compile, assemble, test and run Java applications. Ant can also be used effectively to build non Java applications, for instance C++ or C++ applications. More generally, Ant can be used to pilot any type of process which can be described in terms of targets and tasks.
Ant is written in Java. Users of Ant can develop their own "antlibs" containing Ant tasks and types, and are offered a large number of ready-made commercial or open-source "antlibs".
Ant is extremely flexible and does not impose coding conventions or directory layouts to the Java projects which adopt it as a build tool.
Apache Ant 1.8.2 is now available for download as source or binary (with and without dependencies) from http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi.
Key features of the 1.8.2 release are
performance improvements in directory scanning
XSLT task honors classpath again (bugrep 49271)
distinction between core tasks and optional tasks is abolished
numerous bug fixes and improvements as documented in Bugzilla and in WHATSNEW
该版本改进内容包括：
1. 提升了目录扫描的性能
2. The XSLT task honors the classpath again (bugrep 49271)
3. 取消核心任务和可选任务间的区别对待
4. 修复了很多bug以及完善了稳定