Rmic Task

Rmic

Description

Runs the rmic compiler for a certain class.

Note rmic has been deprecated as of Java 13 and removed as of Java 15. Trying to use it with Java15 will fail unless you specify the executable or rmic-adapter explicitly.

Rmic can be run on a single class (as specified with the classname attribute) or a number of classes at once (all classes below base that are neither _Stub nor _Skel classes). If you want to rmic a single class and this class is a class nested into another class, you have to specify the classname in the form Outer$$Inner instead of Outer.Inner.

It is possible to refine the set of files that are being rmiced. This can be done with the includes, includesfile, excludes, excludesfile and defaultexcludes attributes. With the includes or includesfile attribute you specify the files you want to have included by using patterns. The exclude or excludesfile attribute is used to specify the files you want to have excluded. This is also done with patterns. And finally with the defaultexcludes attribute, you can specify whether you want to use default exclusions or not. See the section on directory based tasks, on how the inclusion/exclusion of files works, and how to write patterns.

This task forms an implicit FileSet and supports most attributes of <fileset> (dir becomes base) as well as the nested <include>, <exclude> and <patternset> elements.

It is possible to use different compilers. This can be selected with the build.rmic property, the compiler attribute, or a nested element. Here are the choices:

default—the default compiler (kaffe, sun or forking) for the platform.
sun—the standard compiler prior to JDK 9
kaffe—the standard compiler of Kaffe
weblogic
forking—(since Apache Ant 1.7) the sun compiler forked into a separate process. Since Ant 1.9.8, this is the default when running on JDK 9+.
xnew—(since Ant 1.7) the sun compiler forked into a separate process, with the -Xnew option. This is the most reliable way to use -Xnew.
JDK 9 has removed support for -Xnew and since Ant 1.9.8 this option will be rejected when running on JDK 9+.
(empty string). This has the same behaviour as not setting the compiler attribute. First the value of build.rmic is used if defined, and if not, the default for the platform is chosen. If build.rmic is set to this, you get the default.

The miniRMI project contains a compiler implementation for this task as well, please consult miniRMI's documentation to learn how to use it.

CORBA support

Java 11 removes the Java EE and CORBA packages and rmic no longer supports either -iiop or -idl options. Starting with Ant 1.10.3, the rmic task will fail when using either while running Java 11+ unless you fork the task and explicitly specify an executable.

Parameters

Attribute	Description	Required
base	the location to store the compiled files. Also serves as the parent directory for any non-Fileset includes, etc. (This functionality has remained unchanged.)	See note
destdir	the location to store the compiled files.	See note
classname	the class for which to run `rmic`.	No
filtering	indicates whether token filtering should take place	No
sourcebase	Pass the `-keepgenerated` flag to `rmic` and move the generated source file to the given `sourcebase` directory.	No
stubversion	Specify the JDK version for the generated stub code. Specify 1.1 to pass the `-v1.1` option to `rmic`, 1.2 for `-v1.2`, compat for `-vcompat`. Since Ant 1.7, if you do not specify a version, and do not ask for `.iiop` or `.idl` files, compat is selected.	No; default is compat
classpath	The classpath to use during compilation	No
classpathref	The classpath to use during compilation, given as reference to a path defined elsewhere	No
includes	comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be included.	No; defaults to all (**)
includesfile	name of a file. Each line of this file is taken to be an include pattern	No
excludes	comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be excluded.	No; defaults to default excludes or none if `defaultexcludes` is no
excludesfile	name of a file. Each line of this file is taken to be an exclude pattern	No
defaultexcludes	indicates whether default excludes should be used or not (yes\|no).	No; defaults to yes
verify	check that classes implement `Remote` before handing them to `rmic`	No; default is false
iiop	indicates that portable (RMI/IIOP) stubs should be generated. See the note on CORBA support above.	No
iiopopts	additional arguments for IIOP class generation	No
idl	indicates that IDL output files should be generated. See the note on CORBA support above.	No
idlopts	additional arguments for IDL file generation	No
debug	generate debug info (passes `-g` to `rmic`)	No; defaults to false
includeAntRuntime	whether to include the Ant run-time libraries	No; defaults to yes
includeJavaRuntime	whether to include the default run-time libraries from the executing JVM	No; defaults to no
extdirs	location of installed extensions	No
compiler	The compiler implementation to use. (See the above list of valid compilers.)	No; defaults to the value of the `build.rmic` property, if set, and the default compiler for the current JDK otherwise
executable	Complete path to the `rmic` executable to use in case of the forking or xnew compiler. Since Ant 1.8.0.	No; defaults to the `rmic` compiler of JDK that is currently running Ant
listfiles	Indicates whether the source files to be compiled will be listed. Since Ant 1.8.0.	No; defaults to no

Note:

Maintaining compatibility, base, when specified by itself, serves as both the parent directory for any source files AND the output directory.
destdir can be used to specify the output directory, allowing for base to be used as the parent directory for any source files.
At least one of either base or destdir must be specified and exist, or an error will occur at run time.

Parameters specified as nested elements

classpath and extdirs

Rmic's classpath and extdirs attributes are path-like structure and can also be set via a nested classpath and extdirs elements.

compilerarg

You can specify additional command line arguments for the compiler with nested <compilerarg> elements. These elements are specified like Command-line Arguments but have an additional attribute that can be used to enable arguments only if a given compiler implementation will be used.

Attribute	Description	Required
value	See Command-line Arguments.	Exactly one of these
line
file
path
prefix	See Command-line Arguments. Since Ant 1.8.	No
suffix	See Command-line Arguments. Since Ant 1.8.	No
compiler	Only pass the specified argument if the chosen compiler implementation matches the value of this attribute. Legal values are the same as those in the above list of valid compilers.)	No

compilerclasspath

Since Ant 1.8.0

A path-like structure holding the classpath to use when loading the compiler implementation if a custom class has been specified. Doesn't have any effect when using one of the built-in compilers.

Any nested element of a type that implements RmicAdapter

Since Ant 1.8.0

If a defined type implements the RmicAdapter interface a nested element of that type can be used as an alternative to the compiler attribute.

Examples

Run the rmic compiler for the class com.xyz.FooBar. The compiled files will be stored in the directory ${build}/classes.

<rmic classname="com.xyz.FooBar" base="${build}/classes"/>

Run the rmic compiler for all classes with .class files below ${build}/classes whose classname starts with Remote. The compiled files will be stored in the directory ${build}/classes.

<rmic base="${build}/classes" includes="**/Remote*.class"/>

If you want to use a custom RmicAdapter org.example.MyAdapter you can either use the compiler attribute:

<rmic classname="com.xyz.FooBar"
      base="${build}/classes"
      compiler="org.example.MyAdapter"/>

or a define a type and nest this into the task like in:

<componentdef classname="org.example.MyAdapter"
              name="myadapter"/>
<rmic classname="com.xyz.FooBar"
      base="${build}/classes">
  <myadapter/>
</rmic>

in which case your compiler adapter can support attributes and nested elements of its own.