Chapter 24. Java Builds
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## Chapter 24. Java Builds

So far, we've been using examples of building C and C++ programs to demonstrate the features of SCons. SCons also supports building Java programs, but Java builds are handled slightly differently, which reflects the ways in which the Java compiler and tools build programs differently than other languages' tool chains.

## 24.1. Building Java Class Files: the `Java` Builder

The basic activity when programming in Java, of course, is to take one or more `.java` files containing Java source code and to call the Java compiler to turn them into one or more `.class` files. In SCons, you do this by giving the `Java` Builder a target directory in which to put the `.class` files, and a source directory that contains the `.java` files:

    Java('classes', 'src')

If the `src` directory contains three `.java` source files, then running SCons might look like this:

    % scons -Q
    javac -d classes -sourcepath src src/Example1.java src/Example2.java src/Example3.java

SCons will actually search the `src` directory tree for all of the `.java` files. The Java compiler will then create the necessary class files in the `classes` subdirectory, based on the class names found in the `.java` files.

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Chapter 23. Alias Targets | Home | 24.2. How SCons Handles Java Dependencies