Purpose

During builds, some tasks require a server to be started (js-test-driver, fitnesse, etc.), but the port the server uses doesn't matter. If the port number is hardcoded, then two builds can't run on the same machine concurrently. Use get-free-port to grab a random free port number to use instead.

Usage

Define the task:

<path id="ant.get.free.port.classpath">
    <fileset dir="FillThisIn" includes="ant-get-free-port-*.jar" />
</path>
<taskdef name="get-free-port" classname="com.backstopsolutions.ant.GetFreePort"
                 classpathref="ant.get.free.port.classpath"/>

Grab a free port:

<get-free-port propertyname="some-property-name"/>
<get-free-port propertyname="another-property-name"/>