Ant plays tricks

I got the newest version of Ant, 1.6.0, and I setup my ANT_HOME and JAVA_HOME as directed. I downloaded a tutorial as well, to help me get started, however... I am running it on windows xp home edition.
When I run 'ant' from the prompt, I get the following...
C:\ant>ant
Usage: java [-options] class [args...]
(to execute a class)
or java [-options] -jar jarfile [args...]
(to execute a jar file)
where options include:
-client to select the "client" VM
-server to select the "server" VM
-hotspot is a synonym for the "client" VM [deprecated]
The default VM is client.
-cp <class search path of directories and zip/jar files>
-classpath <class search path of directories and zip/jar files>
A ; separated list of directories, JAR archives,
and ZIP archives to search for class files.
-D<name>=<value>
set a system property
-verbose[:class|gc|jni]
enable verbose output
-version print product version and exit
-showversion print product version and continue
-? -help print this help message
-X print help on non-standard options
-ea[:<packagename>...|:<classname>]
-enableassertions[:<packagename>...|:<classname>]
enable assertions
-da[:<packagename>...|:<classname>]
-disableassertions[:<packagename>...|:<classname>]
disable assertions
-esa | -enablesystemassertions
enable system assertions
-dsa | -disablesystemassertions
disable system assertions
C:\ant>
So all ant does it running 'java', accordingly to the tutorial, I should have witnessed something like:
Buildfile: build.xml does not exist!
Build failed
Any clue on what is going wrong?
Thanks

Ant expects build.xml to be present in the directory where you invoke ant.sh ot ant.bat, hence the message

Thanks for the reply but No. You only read the last part of the post.
I wish I could get the Build failed message though

That would mean it would actually be working.
When I run the ant.bat file, all it does it launch the "java" command.
It should be looking for the build.xml and run that.
I dont know what is going wrong.
Here is my ant.bat file:
@echo off
REM Copyright (c) 2001-2003 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights
REM reserved.
if exist "%HOME%\antrc_pre.bat" call "%HOME%\antrc_pre.bat"
if "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" @setlocal
rem %~dp0 is expanded pathname of the current script under NT
set DEFAULT_ANT_HOME=%~dp0..
if "%ANT_HOME%"=="" set ANT_HOME=%DEFAULT_ANT_HOME%
set DEFAULT_ANT_HOME=
rem Slurp the command line arguments. This loop allows for an unlimited number
rem of arguments (up to the command line limit, anyway).
set ANT_CMD_LINE_ARGS=%1
if ""%1""=="""" goto doneStart
shift
:setupArgs
if ""%1""=="""" goto doneStart
set ANT_CMD_LINE_ARGS=%ANT_CMD_LINE_ARGS% %1
shift
goto setupArgs
rem This label provides a place for the argument list loop to break out
rem and for NT handling to skip to.

oneStart
rem find ANT_HOME if it does not exist due to either an invalid value passed
rem by the user or the %0 problem on Windows 9x
if exist "%ANT_HOME%\lib\ant.jar" goto checkJava
rem check for ant in Program Files
if not exist "%ProgramFiles%\ant" goto checkSystemDrive
set ANT_HOME=%ProgramFiles%\ant
goto checkJava
:checkSystemDrive
rem check for ant in root directory of system drive
if not exist %SystemDrive%\ant\lib\ant.jar goto checkCDrive
set ANT_HOME=%SystemDrive%\ant
goto checkJava
:checkCDrive
rem check for ant in C:\ant for Win9X users
if not exist C:\ant\lib\ant.jar goto noAntHome
set ANT_HOME=C:\ant
goto checkJava
:noAntHome
echo ANT_HOME is set incorrectly or ant could not be located. Please set ANT_HOME.
goto end
:checkJava
set _JAVACMD=%JAVACMD%
if "%JAVA_HOME%" == "" goto noJavaHome
if not exist "%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe" goto noJavaHome
if "%_JAVACMD%" == "" set _JAVACMD=%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe
goto checkJikes
:noJavaHome
if "%_JAVACMD%" == "" set _JAVACMD=java.exe
:checkJikes
if not "%JIKESPATH%"=="" goto runAntWithJikes
:runAnt
if not "%CLASSPATH%"=="" goto runAntWithClasspath
"%_JAVACMD%" %ANT_OPTS% -classpath "%ANT_HOME%\lib\ant-launcher.jar" "-Dant.home=%ANT_HOME%" org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher %ANT_ARGS% %ANT_CMD_LINE_ARGS%
goto end
:runAntWithClasspath
"%_JAVACMD%" %ANT_OPTS% -classpath "%ANT_HOME%\lib\ant-launcher.jar" "-Dant.home=%ANT_HOME%" org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher %ANT_ARGS% -lib "%CLASSPATH%" %ANT_CMD_LINE_ARGS%
goto end
:runAntWithJikes
if not "%CLASSPATH%"=="" goto runAntWithJikesAndClasspath
"%_JAVACMD%" %ANT_OPTS% -classpath "%ANT_HOME%\lib\ant-launcher.jar" "-Dant.home=%ANT_HOME%" "-Djikes.class.path=%JIKESPATH%" org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher %ANT_ARGS% %ANT_CMD_LINE_ARGS%
goto end
:runAntWithJikesAndClasspath
"%_JAVACMD%" %ANT_OPTS% -classpath "%ANT_HOME%\lib\ant-launcher.jar" "-Dant.home=%ANT_HOME%" "-Djikes.class.path=%JIKESPATH%" org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher %ANT_ARGS% -lib "%CLASSPATH%" %ANT_CMD_LINE_ARGS%
goto end
:end
set _JAVACMD=
set ANT_CMD_LINE_ARGS=
if "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" @endlocal
:mainEnd
if exist "%HOME%\antrc_post.bat" call "%HOME%\antrc_post.bat"

[ January 19, 2004: Message edited by: Michael Jensen ]
[ January 21, 2004: Message edited by: Paul Stevens ]

You are sure they are both set correctly? What does it show when you type set from the command prompt for those?

ANT_HOME=c:\ant\
CLASSPATH=c:\ant\lib;c:\j2sdk1.4.2_03;.
JAVA_HOME=c:\j2sdk1.4.2_03
Path=C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;c:\ant\bin

Try moving c:\ant\bin to the front of your Path. Maybe there is something else named ant on your path. I can't think of what else would do this. I have tried multiple things and always get the build.xml does not exist.

That did not help

However, I installed quicktime today, and after I did that. I got another err.
QTJava unexpected at this time.
Weird.

Ok, I finally got it fixed.
Stupid stupid

First... when I installed Java, it put the QTjava.zip into the classpath for some reason. Ant didnt like that, so i moved around a little bit.
That worked then.
Ok, the first mentioned problem came because my Ant_home was: c:\ant\ instead of c:\ant
Which made the ant.bat script do c:\ant\\....
So it terminated and just launched the "java"
Anyway, thanks for your replies guys

And you even posted what the set command showed. Nobody else saw that either. Thanks for posting the result. Anyone else has a similar problem and they can see what to look for.

Michael,
You are awesome! I was getting that same QTJava.zip unexpected error msg. I just copied what you did for your System variables and now it works. also i had that trailing '\' for my ANT_HOme dir which I removed.
Thanks,

-Krishna