ant against build.xml

How do you use ant "against" a build.xml?

Could you be a little more specific? Are you referring to how to use Ant with a file not called build.xml?

If I'm given the build.xml file and I want to compress my project files into a .jar file.?

Does the build.xml file have a target within that will jar up your project files? If so, assuming you've got Ant installed on your computer, go to the directory where the build.xml file is and type:
ant [jartarget]
Ant assumes that it's going against a build.xml file.

What could be causing the "out of environment space" and "bad file" messages?

You can certainly use ant to build a jar file ( I know from my experience ). There is probably something else going on with your system, what causes errors. Try to set a small project with one or two files and build jar using them. That will give you an idea on how to use ant to build a jar file.

When I was running Windows 98, I would receive "out of environment space" every time I tried to use Ant. My solution was to change operating systems.

Your choices are:
1) Bandaid the problem
Put this line in your config.sys:

Also, check out WinOne.
2) Solve your problem:
Upgrade to Windows 2000/XP. Windows 98 is not a good OS for development work.
[ January 05, 2003: Message edited by: Chris Mathews ]

Actually, in general, an "out of environment space" error usually results from an initial memory setting on the DOS box.
For WinME, I changed the initial value from 'Auto' to 4096 this way:
(1) Bring up a DOS box
(2) Right click on the title bar
(3) Select 'Properties' from the drop-down menu(4) Select the 'Memory' tab
(5) On the drop-down list for the 'Initial Environment', change that value from 'Auto' to 4096
Now, ever time that you open up a DOS box, your initial memory setting will be 4096. That should take care of any 'Out of environment space' problems.
Robert Troshynski