When older ant version is used to build/test nashorn, we get this error: The <property> type doesn't support nested text data ("${run.te...jvmargs}"). Coleen suggested the following change fixes this issue: hg diff diff -r 41a212ea8c0c make/build.xml --- a/make/build.xml Thu Mar 28 20:48:25 2013 +0530 +++ b/make/build.xml Fri Mar 29 18:18:53 2013 +0530 @@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ <target name="init" depends="init-conditions, init-cc"> <!-- extends jvm args --> - <property name="run.test.jvmargs">${run.test.jvmargs.main} ${run.test.cc.jvmargs}</property> + <property name="run.test.jvmargs" value="${run.test.jvmargs.main} ${run.test.cc.jvmargs}"/> <property name="run.test.jvmargs.octane" value="${run.test.jvmargs.octane.main} ${run.test.cc.jvmargs}" /> <echo message="run.test.jvmargs=${run.test.jvmargs}"/> The fix was confirmed by Kumar as well.