[news.eclipse.newcomer] Building a Struts web app fails

[mikey_y <mikey_y@xxxxxxxxx>]

When I try to build my struts project in Eclipse I get the following 
error in the console.


Buildfile: F:\eclipse\eclipse\workspace\strutsTutorial\build.xml
clean:
   [delete] Deleting directory 
F:\eclipse\eclipse\workspace\strutsTutorial\WEB-INF\classes
prep:
    [mkdir] Created dir: 
F:\eclipse\eclipse\workspace\strutsTutorial\WEB-INF\classes
cleanWebApp:
compile:
    [javac] Compiling 1 source file to 
F:\eclipse\eclipse\workspace\strutsTutorial\WEB-INF\classes
BUILD FAILED: F:\eclipse\eclipse\workspace\strutsTutorial\build.xml:40: 
Unable to find a javac compiler;
com.sun.tools.javac.Main is not on the classpath.
Perhaps JAVA_HOME does not point to the JDK
Total time: 2 seconds

After which the build process stops.

My build.xml file contains the following

  <project name="StrutsBox Blank Project" default="main" basedir=".">

    <!--  This is a basic build script, only the minimums here -->

    <!-- Tell ant to use my environment variables -->
    <property environment="env"/>

    <property file="./build.properties"/>

      <property name="build.compiler"     value="modern"/>
      <property name="build.dir"          value="./WEB-INF/classes" />
      <property name="src.dir"            value="./WEB-INF/src"/>
      <property name="war.file"           value="struts-example"/>
      <property name="war.file.name"      value="${war.file}.war"/>
      <property name="tomcat.home"        value="${env.CATALINA_HOME}"/>
      <property name="deploy.dir"         value="${tomcat.home}/webapps"/>
      <property name="servlet.jar" 
value="${tomcat.home}/common/lib/servlet-api.jar"/>

    <path id="project.class.path">
        <fileset dir="./WEB-INF/lib/">
            <include name="**/*.jar"/>
        </fileset>
        <pathelement path="${src.dir}"/>
        <pathelement path="${servlet.jar}"/>
    </path>

      <target name="clean">
          <delete dir="${build.dir}" includeEmptyDirs="true" />
      </target>


      <target name="prep">
          <mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/>
      </target>

      <target name="compile">
        <javac   srcdir="${src.dir}"
                    destdir="${build.dir}"
                    debug="on"
                deprecation="on">
          <include name="**/*.java"/>
          <classpath refid="project.class.path"/>
        </javac>
      </target>

      <target name="cleanWebApp">
        <delete file="${deploy.dir}/${war.file.name}" />
          <delete  dir="${deploy.dir}/${war.file}" 
includeEmptyDirs="true" />
      </target>

      <target name="war">
          <war warfile="${war.file.name}" webxml="./WEB-INF/web.xml">
                 <fileset dir="./" includes="**/*.*" excludes="*.war, 
**/*.nbattrs, web.xml, **/WEB-INF/**/*.*, **/project-files/**/*.*"/>
                 <webinf  dir="./WEB-INF"    includes="**/*" 
excludes="web.xml, **/*.jar, **/*.class"/>
                 <lib     dir="./WEB-INF/lib"/>
                 <classes dir="${build.dir}" includes="**/*.properties" />
          </war>
      </target>

      <target name="deploy">
          <copy todir="${deploy.dir}">
            <fileset dir="./" includes="${war.file.name}"/>
          </copy>
      </target>

    <target name="main" depends="clean, prep, cleanWebApp, compile, war"/>

  </project>
It appears to me that I need to specify in the build file where to find 
the javac executable. I have  a classpath set in my system environment 
variables but this does not seem to be found by the build process.

Can anyone help me with this problem?