Setting up Apache Ant (a Java version of Make that uses XML descriptor files) is generally very easy. It is packaged by Debian so installing it is as simple as "apt-get -u install ant". The great thing about ant is that it is quick and easy to extend it's functionality by adding extra tasks. If you use Tomcat, for instance, there are tasks that allow you to start, stop and redeploy web applications. To use these ant tasks simply link the ant jar found in the tomcat /server/lib directory (called catalina-ant.jar) into the ant lib directory. For instance:

ln -n /usr/local/tomcat/server/lib/catalina-ant.jar /usr/share/ant/lib