Aims of This Chapter

To repeatedly and reliably build any project, you should automate as much of the build execution as possible. For Java development environments using Apache Ant, one common tool that is typically used to achieve this is CruiseControl. After reading this chapter, you will be able to

• Understand the difference between manual and automatic builds, as well as how a tool such as CruiseControl can best be used to support an automated build process.

• Create a CruiseControl project to automate the execution of an Ant build.

• Configure a CruiseControl project to automatically send e-mail notifications on build success or failure.

This chapter assumes that you have no existing knowledge of CruiseControl.