projects vs ant/make

Where can I learn about how projects interact with external
build engines and dependency databases?

For example ...

- How do projects extract lists of dependencies from a build.xml?

- If you use the project UI to add a dependency how does a build.xml
  get told about it?


I've looked at http://projects.netbeans.org/ps/ReqProject.html
uner User requirements and to my horror noticed thatinteraction with
external build engines/repositories isn't a stated requirement.

The "Organization of Data Objects - requirements" on the same
page doesn't mention ant or make either.

_None_ of the following documents mention ant or make:

http://projects.netbeans.org/ps/Build.html
http://projects.netbeans.org/ps/Dependencies.html
<the set of documnets related to "Session management">

This is about all I can find under "Project Specification".

http://projects.netbeans.org/ps/index.html#IN