Lucene Build Instructions Basic steps: 0) Install JDK 1.5 (or greater), Ant 1.7.1+ (not 1.6.x, not 1.8.x) 1) Download Lucene from Apache and unpack it 2) Connect to the top-level of your Lucene installation 3) Install JavaCC (optional) 4) Run ant Step 0) Set up your development environment (JDK 1.5 or greater, Ant 1.7.1+) We'll assume that you know how to get and set up the JDK - if you don't, then we suggest starting at http://java.sun.com and learning more about Java, before returning to this README. Lucene runs with JDK 1.5 and later. Like many Open Source java projects, Lucene uses Apache Ant for build control. Specifically, you MUST use Ant version 1.7.1+ Ant is "kind of like make without make's wrinkles". Ant is implemented in java and uses XML-based configuration files. You can get it at: http://ant.apache.org You'll need to download the Ant binary distribution. Install it according to the instructions at: http://ant.apache.org/manual Step 1) Download Lucene from Apache We'll assume you already did this, or you wouldn't be reading this file. However, you might have received this file by some alternate route, or you might have an incomplete copy of the Lucene, so: Lucene releases are available for download at: http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/lucene/java/ Download either a zip or a tarred/gzipped version of the archive, and uncompress it into a directory of your choice. Step 2) From the command line, change (cd) into the top-level directory of your Lucene installation Lucene's top-level directory contains the build.xml file. By default, you do not need to change any of the settings in this file, but you do need to run ant from this location so it knows where to find build.xml. If you would like to change settings you can do so by creating one or more of the following files and placing your own property settings in there: ~/lucene.build.properties ~/build.properties lucene-x.y/build.properties The first property which is found in the order with which the files are loaded becomes the property setting which is used by the Ant build system. NOTE: the ~ character represents your user account home directory. Step 3) Install JavaCC Building the Lucene distribution from the source does not require the JavaCC parser generator, but if you wish to regenerate any of the pre-generated parser pieces, you will need to install JavaCC. Version 4.1 is tested to work correctly. http://javacc.dev.java.net Follow the download links and download the zip file to a temporary location on your file system. After JavaCC is installed, create a build.properties file (as in step 2), and add the line javacc.home=/javacc where this points to the root directory of your javacc installation (the directory that contains bin/lib/javacc.jar). Step 4) Run ant Assuming you have ant in your PATH and have set ANT_HOME to the location of your ant installation, typing "ant" at the shell prompt and command prompt should run ant. Ant will by default look for the "build.xml" file in your current directory, and compile Lucene. To rebuild any of the JavaCC-based parsers, run "ant javacc". For further information on Lucene, go to: http://lucene.apache.org/ Please join the Lucene-User mailing list by visiting this site: http://lucene.apache.org/java/docs/mailinglists.html Please post suggestions, questions, corrections or additions to this document to the lucene-user mailing list. This file was originally written by Steven J. Owens . This file was modified by Jon S. Stevens . Copyright (c) 2001-2005 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights reserved.