Arguments of the form VAR=value are variable or parameter definitions. Variables defined in this way are made available to all backends. These can be used to override the value of interface variables or variables set in backend build files.

For the make backend, these variable definitions are just passed along to make.

For the Groovy backend, these variables are stored in a manner such that abuild.resolve will give them precedence over normal parameters or interface variables. They are also defined as properties in the ant project.

For the deprecated xml-based ant framework, these definitions are made available as ant properties that are defined prior to reading any generated or user-provided files.