class org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.ssh.SSHExec was not found

Question

I have somewhat common problem with ant not being able to find the class org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.ssh.SSHExec. However, the common solutions don't work for me:

ensuring that the jsch.jar and ant-jsch.jar exists in the classpath
ensuring that there are not multiple different versions of the mentioned jars
ensuring that ant -diagnostics is infact seeing the jars

I have no idea what I should try out next. The output I get is the good 'ol:

build.xml: Problem: failed to create task or type sshexec
Cause: the class org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.ssh.SSHExec was not found.
        This looks like one of Ant's optional components.
Action: Check that the appropriate optional JAR exists in
        -/usr/share/ant/lib
        -/opt/home/myname/.ant/lib
        -a directory added on the command line with the -lib argument

Do not panic, this is a common problem.
The commonest cause is a missing JAR.

My setup:

ant version: Apache Ant(TM) version 1.9.2 compiled on January 22 2014
ant-jsch version: 1.9.2
jsch version: 0.1.52

Ant diagnostics log can be found here: http://pastebin.com/q5AURxuk

As seen from the diagnostics log, the jars are there but ant reports: sshexec : Not Available (the implementation class is not present)

I also extracted the jar file and ensured that the class is there.

Any ideas?

Christian Christian · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-27T07:16:43

I've been hit by nearly the same problem, especially ant -diagnostics shows that sshexec task is "Not available".

On my system the solution was to install package "ant-optional" additionally (as I've already posted here: ANT can't find specific libraries)

Maybe this helps.

Regards

class org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.ssh.SSHExec was not found

2 Answers