ant build.xml does not exist. Build failed

Question

I am a beginner in Ant and GWT and I was creating a new Ant project in GWT by following the steps mentioned on this GWT page: webAppCreator under the Creating an Ant project section. I was able to create this project successfully but I got the error build.xml does not exist! in the Command Prompt log. I am unable to fix this problem even after following all the steps mentioned here : ant build.xml file doesn't exist.

Here is my Command Prompt log:

C:\Users\TEST>webAppCreator -junit D:\SELENIUM\junit-4.10.jar -out foo com.example.foo.Foo
Generating from templates: [sample, eclipse, readme, _eclipse-test, _sample-test, ant]
Created directory foo
Created directory foo\src
Created directory foo\src\com\example\foo
Created directory foo\src\com\example\foo\client
Created directory foo\src\com\example\foo\server
Created directory foo\src\com\example\foo\shared
Created directory foo\test
Created directory foo\test\com\example\foo
Created directory foo\war
Created directory foo\war\WEB-INF
Created directory foo\test\com\example\foo\client
Created file foo\src\com\example\foo\Foo.gwt.xml
Created file foo\src\com\example\foo\client\GreetingService.java
Created file foo\src\com\example\foo\client\GreetingServiceAsync.java
Created file foo\src\com\example\foo\client\Foo.java
Created file foo\src\com\example\foo\server\GreetingServiceImpl.java
Created file foo\src\com\example\foo\shared\FieldVerifier.java
Created file foo\war\WEB-INF\web.xml
Created file foo\war\Foo.css
Created file foo\war\Foo.html
Created file foo\war\favicon.ico
Created file foo\.classpath
Created file foo\.project
Created file foo\Foo.launch
Created file foo\README.txt
Created file foo\FooSuite-dev.launch
Created file foo\FooSuite-prod.launch
Created file foo\test\com\example\foo\FooJUnit.gwt.xml
Created file foo\test\com\example\foo\FooSuite.java
Created file foo\test\com\example\foo\client\FooTest.java
Created file foo\build.xml

C:\Users\TEST>ant build
Buildfile: build.xml does not exist!
Build failed

C:\Users\TEST>ant devmode
Buildfile: build.xml does not exist!
Build failed

Here is my build.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<project name="Foo" default="build" basedir=".">
  <!-- Arguments to gwtc and devmode targets -->
  <property name="gwt.args" value="" />

  <!-- Configure path to GWT SDK -->
  <property name="gwt.sdk" location="D:/GWT/gwt-2.8.1/gwt-2.8.1" />

  <path id="project.class.path">
    <pathelement location="war/WEB-INF/classes"/>
    <pathelement location="${gwt.sdk}/gwt-user.jar"/>
    <pathelement location="${gwt.sdk}/gwt-dev.jar"/>
    <pathelement location="${gwt.sdk}/validation-api-1.0.0.GA.jar"/>
    <pathelement location="${gwt.sdk}/validation-api-1.0.0.GA-sources.jar"/>
    <fileset dir="war/WEB-INF/lib" includes="**/*.jar"/>
    <!-- Add any additional non-server libs (such as JUnit) here -->
  </path>

  <target name="libs" description="Copy libs to WEB-INF/lib">
    <mkdir dir="war/WEB-INF/lib" />
    <copy todir="war/WEB-INF/lib" file="${gwt.sdk}/gwt-servlet.jar" />
    <copy todir="war/WEB-INF/lib" file="${gwt.sdk}/gwt-servlet-deps.jar" />
    <!-- Add any additional server libs that need to be copied -->
  </target>

  <target name="javac" depends="libs" description="Compile java source to bytecode">
    <mkdir dir="war/WEB-INF/classes"/>
    <javac srcdir="src" includes="**" encoding="utf-8"
        destdir="war/WEB-INF/classes"
        source="1.7" target="1.7" nowarn="true"
        debug="true" debuglevel="lines,vars,source">
      <classpath refid="project.class.path"/>
    </javac>
    <copy todir="war/WEB-INF/classes">
      <fileset dir="src" excludes="**/*.java"/>
    </copy>
  </target>

  <target name="gwtc" depends="javac" description="GWT compile to JavaScript (production mode)">
    <java failonerror="true" fork="true" classname="com.google.gwt.dev.Compiler" maxmemory="512m">
      <classpath>
        <pathelement location="src"/>
        <path refid="project.class.path"/>
      </classpath>
      <arg line="-war"/>
      <arg value="war"/>
      <!-- Additional arguments like -style PRETTY or -logLevel DEBUG -->
      <arg line="${gwt.args}"/>
      <arg value="com.example.foo.Foo"/>
    </java>
  </target>

  <target name="devmode" depends="javac" description="Run development mode (pass -Dgwt.args=-nosuperDevMode to fallback to classic DevMode)">
    <java failonerror="true" fork="true" classname="com.google.gwt.dev.DevMode" maxmemory="1g">
      <classpath>
        <pathelement location="src"/>
        <path refid="project.class.path"/>
        <pathelement location="${gwt.sdk}/gwt-codeserver.jar"/>
      </classpath>
      <arg value="-startupUrl"/>
      <arg value="Foo.html"/>
      <arg line="-war"/>
      <arg value="war"/>
      <!-- Additional arguments like -style PRETTY, -logLevel DEBUG or -nosuperDevMode -->
      <arg line="${gwt.args}"/>
      <arg value="com.example.foo.Foo"/>
      <arg value="com.example.foo.Foo"/>
    </java>
  </target>

  <target name="javac.tests" depends="javac" description="Compiles test code">
    <javac srcdir="test" includes="**" encoding="utf-8"
      source="1.7" target="1.7" nowarn="true"
      destdir="war/WEB-INF/classes"
      debug="true" debuglevel="lines,vars,source">
      <classpath location="D:\SELENIUM\junit-4.10.jar"/>
      <classpath refid="project.class.path"/>
    </javac>
  </target>

  <target name="test.dev" depends="javac.tests" description="Run development mode tests">
    <mkdir dir="reports/htmlunit.dev" />
    <junit fork="yes" printsummary="yes" haltonfailure="yes" maxmemory="256m">
      <sysproperty key="gwt.args" value="-devMode -logLevel WARN -war www-test" />
      <sysproperty key="java.awt.headless" value="true" />
      <classpath>
        <pathelement location="src" />
        <pathelement location="test" />
        <path refid="project.class.path" />
        <pathelement location="D:/GWT/gwt-2.8.1/gwt-2.8.1/validation-api-1.0.0.GA.jar" />
        <pathelement location="D:/GWT/gwt-2.8.1/gwt-2.8.1/validation-api-1.0.0.GA-sources.jar" />
        <pathelement location="D:\SELENIUM\junit-4.10.jar" />
      </classpath>
      <batchtest todir="reports/htmlunit.dev" >
        <fileset dir="test" >
          <include name="**/*Suite.java" />
        </fileset>
      </batchtest>
      <formatter type="plain" />
      <formatter type="xml" />
    </junit>
  </target>

  <target name="test.prod" depends="javac.tests" description="Run production mode tests">
    <mkdir dir="reports/htmlunit.prod" />
    <junit fork="yes" printsummary="yes" haltonfailure="yes" maxmemory="256m">
      <sysproperty key="gwt.args" value="-logLevel WARN -war www-test" />
      <sysproperty key="java.awt.headless" value="true" />
      <classpath>
        <pathelement location="src" />
        <pathelement location="test" />
        <path refid="project.class.path" />
        <pathelement location="D:/GWT/gwt-2.8.1/gwt-2.8.1/validation-api-1.0.0.GA.jar" />
        <pathelement location="D:/GWT/gwt-2.8.1/gwt-2.8.1/validation-api-1.0.0.GA-sources.jar" />
        <pathelement location="D:\SELENIUM\junit-4.10.jar" />
      </classpath>
      <batchtest todir="reports/htmlunit.prod" >
        <fileset dir="test" >
          <include name="**/*Suite.java" />
        </fileset>
      </batchtest>
      <formatter type="plain" />
      <formatter type="xml" />
    </junit>
  </target>

  <target name="test" description="Run development and production mode tests">
    <antcall target="test.dev" />
    <antcall target="test.prod" />
  </target>

  <target name="build" depends="gwtc" description="Build this project" />

  <target name="war" depends="build" description="Create a war file">
    <zip destfile="Foo.war" basedir="war"/>
  </target>

  <target name="clean" description="Cleans this project">
    <delete dir="war/WEB-INF/classes" failonerror="false" />
    <delete dir="war/foo" failonerror="false" />
  </target>

</project>

Can someone please help me to fix this issue?

Solution 1

It seems your build.xml is created in a foo folder. See this output:

Created file foo\build.xml

Go to the foo directory and then run ant.

Solution 2

C:\Users\TEST>ant build

Buildfile: build.xml does not exist!

Build failed

It means build file is absent in TEST directory. Checking your logs you have one in the :\Users\TEST\foo. So you should navigate into foo than try command via terminal one more time.