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| <html lang="en"> |
| |
| <head> |
| <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../stylesheets/style.css"> |
| <title>Ant Task</title> |
| </head> |
| |
| <body> |
| |
| <h2 id="ant">Ant</h2> |
| <h3>Description</h3> |
| |
| <p>Runs Apache Ant on a supplied buildfile. This can be used to build subprojects. <strong>This |
| task must not be used outside of a <code>target</code> if it invokes the same build file it is part |
| of.</strong></p> |
| |
| <p>When the <var>antfile</var> attribute is omitted, the file <samp>build.xml</samp> in the supplied |
| directory (<var>dir</var> attribute) is used.</p> |
| <p>If no target attribute is supplied, the default target of the new project is used.</p> |
| <p>By default, all of the properties of the current project will be available in the new project. |
| Alternatively, you can set the <var>inheritAll</var> attribute to <q>false</q> and only |
| "user" properties (i.e., those passed on the command-line) will be passed to the new |
| project. In either case, the set of properties passed to the new project will override the |
| properties that are set in the new project (See also the <a href="property.html">property</a> |
| task).</p> |
| |
| <p>You can also set properties in the new project from the old project by using |
| nested <code>property</code> tags. These properties are always passed to the new project and any |
| project created in that project regardless of the setting of <var>inheritAll</var>. This allows you |
| to parameterize your subprojects.</p> |
| |
| <p>When more than one nested <code><property></code> element would set a property of the same |
| name, the one declared last will win. This is for backwards compatibility reasons even though it is |
| different from the way <code><property></code> tasks in build files behave.</p> |
| |
| <p>Properties defined on the command line cannot be overridden by |
| nested <code><property></code> elements. <em>Since Ant 1.8.0</em>, the same is true for |
| nested structures of <code><ant></code> tasks: if a build file <var>A</var> |
| invokes <var>B</var> via an <code><ant></code> task setting a property with a |
| nested <code><property></code> element and <var>B</var> contains an <code><ant></code> |
| tasks invoking <var>C</var>, <var>C</var> will see the value set in <var>A</var>, even |
| if <var>B</var> used a nested <code><property></code> element as well.</p> |
| |
| <p>References to data types can also be passed to the new project, but by default they are not. If |
| you set the <var>inheritrefs</var> attribute to <q>true</q>, all references will be copied, but they |
| will not override references defined in the new project.</p> |
| |
| <p>Nested <a href="#reference"><code><reference></code></a> elements can also be used to copy |
| references from the calling project to the new project, optionally under a different <var>id</var>. |
| References taken from nested elements will override existing references that have been defined |
| outside of targets in the new project—but not those defined inside of targets.</p> |
| |
| <h3>Parameters</h3> |
| <table class="attr"> |
| <tr> |
| <th scope="col">Attribute</th> |
| <th scope="col">Description</th> |
| <th scope="col">Required</th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>antfile</td> |
| <td>the buildfile to use. This file is expected to be a filename relative to the <var>dir</var> |
| attribute given.</td> |
| <td>No; defaults to <q>build.xml</q></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>dir</td> |
| <td>the directory to use as a <var>basedir</var> for the new Ant project |
| (unless <var>useNativeBasedir</var> is set to <q>true</q>). This will override |
| the <var>basedir</var> setting of the called project.<br/> Also serves as the directory to |
| resolve the <var>antfile</var> and <var>output</var> attribute's values (if any). |
| </td> |
| <td>No; defaults to the current project's <var>basedir</var>, unless <var>inheritall</var> has |
| been set to <q>false</q>, in which case it doesn't have a default value</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>target</td> |
| <td>the target of the new Ant project that should be executed.</td> |
| <td>No; defaults to the new project's default target</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>output</td> |
| <td>Filename to write the Ant output to. This is relative to the value of the <var>dir</var> |
| attribute if it has been set or to the <var>basedir</var> of the current project otherwise. |
| </td> |
| <td>No</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>inheritAll</td> |
| <td>If <q>true</q>, pass all properties to the new Ant project.</td> |
| <td>No; defaults to <q>true</q></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>inheritRefs</td> |
| <td>If <q>true</q>, pass all references to the new Ant project.</td> |
| <td>No; defaults to <q>false</q></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>useNativeBasedir</td> |
| <td>If set to <q>true</q>, the child build will use the same <var>basedir</var> as it would have |
| used when run from the command line (i.e. the <var>basedir</var> one would expect when looking |
| at the child build's buildfile). <em>Since Ant 1.8.0</em></td> |
| <td>No; defaults to <q>false</q></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <h3>Parameters specified as nested elements</h3> |
| |
| <h4>property</h4> |
| <p>See the description of the <a href="property.html">property</a> task.<br/> These properties |
| become equivalent to properties you define on the command line. These are special properties and |
| they will always get passed down, even through additional <code><*ant*></code> tasks |
| with <var>inheritAll</var> set to <q>false</q> (see above).<br/> Note that the <var>refid</var> |
| attribute points to a reference in the calling project, not in the new one.</p> |
| |
| <h4 id="reference">reference</h4> |
| <p>Used to choose references that shall be copied into the new project, optionally changing |
| their <var>id</var>.</p> |
| |
| <table class="attr"> |
| <tr> |
| <th scope="col">Attribute</th> |
| <th scope="col">Description</th> |
| <th scope="col">Required</th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>refid</td> |
| <td>The <var>id</var> of the reference in the calling project.</td> |
| <td>Yes</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>torefid</td> |
| <td>The <var>id</var> of the reference in the new project.</td> |
| <td>No; defaults to the value of <var>refid</var></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <h4>propertyset</h4> |
| |
| <p><em>Since Ant 1.6</em>.</p> |
| |
| <p>You can specify a set of properties to be copied into the new project |
| with <a href="../Types/propertyset.html">propertyset</a>s.</p> |
| |
| <h4>target</h4> |
| <p><em>Since Ant 1.6.3</em>.</p> |
| |
| <p>You can specify multiple targets using nested <code><target></code> elements instead of |
| using the <var>target</var> attribute. These will be executed as if Ant had been invoked with a |
| single target whose dependencies are the targets so specified, in the order specified.</p> |
| <table class="attr"> |
| <tr> |
| <th scope="col">Attribute</th> |
| <th scope="col">Description</th> |
| <th scope="col">Required</th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>name</td> |
| <td>The name of the called target.</td> |
| <td>Yes</td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <h3>Basedir of the new project</h3> |
| |
| <p>If you set <var>useNativeBasedir</var> to true, the <var>basedir</var> of the new project will be |
| whatever the <var>basedir</var> attribute of the <code><project></code> element of the new |
| project says (or the new project's directory if the there is no <var>basedir</var> |
| attribute)—no matter what any other attribute of this task says and no matter how deeply |
| nested into levels of <code><ant></code> invocations this task lives.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you haven't set <var>useNativeBasedir</var> or set it to <q>false</q>, the following rules |
| apply:</p> |
| |
| <p>The <var>basedir</var> value of the new project is affected by the two attributes, <var>dir</var> |
| and <var>inheritall</var>, as well as the <code><ant></code> task's history. The current |
| behaviour is known to be confusing but cannot be changed without breaking backwards compatibility in |
| subtle ways.</p> |
| |
| <p>If the <code><ant></code> task is in a "top level" build file, i.e. the project containing |
| the <code><ant></code> task has not itself been invoked as part of a |
| different <code><ant></code> (or <code><antcall></code>) task "higher up", the following |
| table shows the details:</p> |
| |
| <table> |
| <tr> |
| <th scope="col"><var>dir</var> attribute</th> |
| <th scope="col"><var>inheritAll</var> attribute</th> |
| <th scope="col">new project's <var>basedir</var></th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>value provided</td> |
| <td><q>true</q></td> |
| <td>value of <var>dir</var> attribute</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>value provided</td> |
| <td><q>false</q></td> |
| <td>value of <var>dir</var> attribute</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>omitted</td> |
| <td><q>true</q></td> |
| <td><var>basedir</var> of calling project (the one whose build |
| file contains the <code><ant></code> task).</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>omitted</td> |
| <td><q>false</q></td> |
| <td><var>basedir</var> attribute of the <code><project></code> element |
| of the new project</td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <p>If on the other hand the <code><ant></code> task is already nested into another invocation, |
| the parent invocation's settings affect the outcome of the <var>basedir</var> value. The current |
| task's <var>dir</var> attribute will always win, but if the <var>dir</var> attribute has been |
| omitted an even more complex situation arises:</p> |
| |
| <table> |
| <tr> |
| <th scope="col">parent <var>dir</var> attribute</th> |
| <th scope="col">parent <var>inheritAll</var> attribute</th> |
| <th scope="col">current <var>inheritAll</var> attribute</th> |
| <th scope="col">new project's <var>basedir</var></th> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>value provided</td> |
| <td>any</td> |
| <td>any</td> |
| <td>value of parent's <var>dir</var> attribute</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>omitted</td> |
| <td><q>true</q></td> |
| <td><q>true</q></td> |
| <td><var>basedir</var> of parent project (the one whose build file called the build file that |
| contains the current <code><ant></code> task).</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>omitted</td> |
| <td><q>true</q></td> |
| <td><q>false</q></td> |
| <td><var>basedir</var> of parent project (the one whose build file called the build file that |
| contains the current <code><ant></code> task).</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>omitted</td> |
| <td><q>false</q></td> |
| <td><q>true</q></td> |
| <td><var>basedir</var> of calling project (the one whose build file contains the |
| current <code><ant></code> task).</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>omitted</td> |
| <td><q>false</q></td> |
| <td><q>false</q></td> |
| <td><var>basedir</var> attribute of the <code><project></code> element of the new |
| project</td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <p>If you add even deeper levels of nesting, things get even more complicated and you need to apply |
| the above table recursively.</p> |
| |
| <p>If the <var>basedir</var> of the outermost build has been specified as a property on the command |
| line (i.e. <kbd>-Dbasedir=some-value</kbd> or a <kbd>-propertyfile</kbd> argument) the value |
| provided will get an even higher priority. For any <code><ant></code> task that doesn't |
| specify a <var>dir</var> attribute, the new project's <var>basedir</var> will be the value specified |
| on the command line—no matter how deeply nested into layers of build files the task may |
| be.</p> |
| |
| <p>The same happens if the <var>basedir</var> is specified as a nested <code><property></code> |
| of an <code><ant></code> task. The <var>basedir</var> of build files started at deeper levels |
| will be set to the specified value of the property element unless the corresponding Ant tasks set |
| the <var>dir</var> attribute explicitly.</p> |
| |
| <h3>Examples</h3> |
| <p>These are different ways of using the task:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <ant antfile="subproject/subbuild.xml" target="compile"/> |
| |
| <ant dir="subproject"/> |
| |
| <ant antfile="subproject/property_based_subbuild.xml"> |
| <property name="param1" value="version 1.x"/> |
| <property file="config/subproject/default.properties"/> |
| </ant> |
| |
| <ant inheritAll="false" antfile="subproject/subbuild.xml"> |
| <property name="output.type" value="html"/> |
| </ant></pre> |
| |
| <p>These lines invoke the same build file:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <ant antfile="sub1/sub2/build.xml"/> |
| <ant antfile="sub2/build.xml" dir="sub1"/> |
| <ant antfile="build.xml" dir="sub1/sub2"/></pre> |
| |
| <p>The build file of the calling project defines some <code><path></code> elements like |
| this:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| <path id="path1"> |
| ... |
| </path> |
| <path id="path2"> |
| ... |
| </path></pre> |
| |
| <p>and the called build file (<samp>subbuild.xml</samp>) also defines a <code><path></code> |
| with the <var>id</var> <samp>path1</samp>, but <samp>path2</samp> is not defined; then</p> |
| |
| <pre><ant antfile="subbuild.xml" inheritrefs="true"/></pre> |
| |
| <p>will not override <samp>subbuild</samp>'s definition of <samp>path1</samp>, but make the parent's |
| definition of <samp>path2</samp> available in the <samp>subbuild</samp>, whereas</p> |
| |
| <pre><ant antfile="subbuild.xml"/></pre> |
| |
| <p>as well as</p> |
| |
| <pre><ant antfile="subbuild.xml" inheritrefs="false"/></pre> |
| |
| <p>will neither override <samp>path1</samp> nor copy <samp>path2</samp>, while</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| <ant antfile="subbuild.xml" inheritrefs="false"> |
| <reference refid="path1"/> |
| </ant></pre> |
| |
| <p>will override <samp>subbuild</samp>'s definition of <samp>path1</samp>, and</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| <ant antfile="subbuild.xml" inheritrefs="false"> |
| <reference refid="path1" torefid="path2"/> |
| </ant></pre> |
| |
| <p>will copy the parent's definition of <samp>path1</samp> into the new project using |
| the <var>id</var> <samp>path2</samp>.</p> |
| |
| </body> |
| </html> |