Ant Developer’s Handbook

Matching Class to Source

It’s generally accepted that before you deploy a Java application, all the source code should be recompiled in an environment devoid of all project-related class files. If we’re working with a project that contains hundreds or thousands of classes, this can be a time-consuming step that’s often skipped by developers. When you neglect to perform a clean build, you risk the possibility that unwanted or rogue classes remain in the distribution tree and, consequently, in the classpath. More often than not, these rogue classes lie dormant, just waiting for an inopportune time to cause trouble. If the developer is lucky, the rogue class results in a phantom bug that leads to its discovery and removal. The other scenario is ...