在javaEE项目中，需要将工程部署到远程服务器上，如果部署的频率比较高，手动部署的方式就比较麻烦，可以利用Ant工具实现快捷的部署。这篇博文详细介绍了ant配置的步骤（http://www.cnblogs.com/GloriousOnion/archive/2012/12/18/2822817.html），但是在tomcat7以上不适用，需要修改配置，具体如下：
1.配置tomcat的用户角色
tomcat7中的用户角色有：
manager-gui — Access to the HTML interface.
manager-status — Access to the "Server Status" page only.
manager-script — Access to the tools-friendly plain text interface that is
described in this document, and to the "Server Status" page.
manager-jmx — Access to JMX proxy interface and to the "Server
Status" page.
我们要用到的是manager-script，在tomcat-users.xml 中进行配置。加入以下代码：
<role rolename="manager-script" />
<user username="用户名"
password="密码" roles="manager-script">
2.配置Ant环境
以前在 6.0 的时候, 我们会在 classpath中加入catalina-ant.jar 包,具体操作为 :window-->preferences,左边:ant-->runtime,在右边的 classpath标签中的global entries 下加入 external jars,路径指向 tomcat_home/lib/catalina-ant.jar, 只需这一个即可,但是现在 7.0得再加几个才行:
lib/catalina-ant.jar,lib/tomcat-coyote.jar,lib/tomcat-util.jar,bin/tomcat-juli.jar
3.编写build.xml文件
<project name="工程名"
default="redeploy" basedir=".">
<!-- Configure the directory into which the web application is built
-->
<property name="build"
value="${basedir}/build"/>
<!-- Configure the context path for this application -->
<property name="path" value="/应用的名称"/>
<!-- Configure properties to access the Manager application -->
<property name="url"
value="http://你的域名/manager/text"/>
<property name="username" value="步骤1中配置的用户名"/>
<property name="password" value="步骤1中配置的密码"/>
<!-- Configure the custom Ant tasks for the Manager application
-->
<taskdef name="deploy"
classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.DeployTask"/>
<taskdef name="list"
classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ListTask"/>
<taskdef name="reload"
classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ReloadTask"/>
<taskdef name="findleaks"
classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.FindLeaksTask"/>
<taskdef name="resources"
classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ResourcesTask"/>
<taskdef name="start"
classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.StartTask"/>
<taskdef name="stop"
classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.StopTask"/>
<taskdef name="undeploy"
classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.UndeployTask"/>
<!-- Executable Targets -->
<target name="compile" description="Compile web
application">
<!-- ... construct web application in ${build} subdirectory, and
generated a ${path}.war ... -->
<delete
dir="${build}"/>
<mkdir dir="${build}"/>
<war
destfile="${build}/school.war"
webxml="WebRoot/WEB-INF/web.xml">
<classes
dir="WebRoot/WEB-INF/classes">
<exclude
name="**/*.xml"/>
</classes>
<lib
dir="WebRoot/WEB-INF/lib" />
<fileset dir="WebRoot">
<include
name="**/**.*" />
<exclude
name="**/*.jar"/>
<exclude
name="**/*.class"/>
</fileset>
</war>
</target>
<target name="deploy" description="Install web
application" depends="compile">
<deploy url="${url}" username="${username}"
password="${password}" path="${path}"
war="${build}/school.war"/>
</target>
<target name="reload" description="Reload web
application" depends="compile">
<reload url="${url}"
username="${username}" password="${password}"
path="${path}"/>
</target>
<target name="undeploy" description="Remove web
application">
<undeploy url="${url}" username="${username}"
password="${password}" path="${path}"/>
</target>
<target
name="redeploy" description="Remove and Install web
application">
<antcall
target="undeploy"/>
<antcall
target="deploy"/>
</target>
</project>
最后运行该文件，你的工程就可以部署到远程tomcat上了。
具体的说明可参考官方的文档：
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/manager-howto.html#Executing_Manager_Commands_With_Ant