wangwei
/
antliscence
forked from youys/ant

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<title>Apache Ant User Manual</title>
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<h2><a name="ant">Ant</a></h2>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>Runs Ant on a supplied buildfile. This can be used to build subprojects.</p>
<p>When the <i>antfile</i> attribute is omitted, the file &quot;build.xml&quot;
in the supplied directory (<i>dir</i> 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 <i>inheritAll</i> attribute to <code>false</code> and only
&quot;user&quot; 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 task</a>).</p>
<p>You can also set properties in the new project from the old project by
using nested property tags. These properties are always passed regardless of the
setting of <i>inheritAll</i>.  This allows you to parameterize your subprojects.</p>

<p>References to data types will also be passed to the new project by
default, but they will not override references defined in the new
project.  You can limit the references you want to copy by setting the
<i>inheritall</i> attribute to <code>false</code> and using nested
reference elements.  The nested elements can also be used to copy
references from the calling project to the new project under a
different id.  References taken from nested elements will override
existing references in the new project.</p>

<h3>Parameters</h3>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
    <td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
    <td align="center" valign="top"><b>Required</b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">antfile</td>
    <td valign="top">the buildfile to use. Defaults to
      &quot;build.xml&quot;.  This file is expected to be a filename
      relative to the dir attribute given.</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">dir</td>
 	<td valign="top">the directory to use as a basedir for the new Ant project. 
      Defaults to the current project's basedir, unless
      inheritall has been set to false, in which case it doesn't
      have a default value.  This will override the basedir
      setting of the called project.</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">target</td>
    <td valign="top">the target of the new Ant project that should be executed.
      Defaults to the new project's default target.</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">output</td>
    <td valign="top">Filename to write the ant output to.
    </td>
    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">inheritAll</td> <td valign="top">If
    <code>true</code>, pass all properties and references to the new
    Ant project.  Defaults to <code>true</code>.
    </td>
    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<h3>Parameters specified as nested elements</h3>
<h4>property</h4>
<p>See the description of the <a href="property.html">property task</a>.</p>

<h4>reference</h4>
<p>Used to chose references that shall be copied into the new project,
optionally changing their id.</p>

<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
    <td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
    <td align="center" valign="top"><b>Required</b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">refid</td>
    <td valign="top">The id of the reference in the calling project.</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">Yes</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">toid</td>
    <td valign="top">The id of the reference in the new project.</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No, defaults to the value of refid.</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<h3>Basedir of the new project</h3>

<p>The basedir value of the new project is affected by the two
attributes dir and inheritall, see the following table for
details:</p>

<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td valign="top"><b>dir attribute</b></td>
    <td valign="top"><b>inheritAll attribute</b></td>
    <td valign="top"><b>new project's basedir</b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">value provided</td>
    <td valign="top">true</td>
    <td valign="top">value of dir attribute</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">value provided</td>
    <td valign="top">false</td>
    <td valign="top">value of dir attribute</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">omitted</td>
    <td valign="top">true</td>
    <td valign="top">basedir of calling project (the one whose build
        file contains the &lt;ant&gt; task).</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">omitted</td>
    <td valign="top">false</td>
    <td valign="top">basedir attribute of the &lt;project&gt; element
        of the new project</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<h3>Examples</h3>
<pre>
  &lt;ant antfile=&quot;subproject/subbuild.xml&quot; dir=&quot;subproject&quot; target=&quot;compile&quot;/&gt;

  &lt;ant dir=&quot;subproject&quot;/&gt;

  &lt;ant antfile=&quot;subproject/property_based_subbuild.xml&quot;&gt;
    &lt;property name=&quot;param1&quot; value=&quot;version 1.x&quot;/&gt;
    &lt;property file=&quot;config/subproject/default.properties&quot;/&gt;
  &lt;/ant&gt;

  &lt;ant inheritAll=&quot;false&quot; antfile=&quot;subproject/subbuild.xml&quot;&gt;
    &lt;property name=&quot;output.type&quot; value=&quot;html&quot;/&gt;
  &lt;/ant&gt;
</pre>

<p>The build file of the calling project defines some
<code>&lt;path&gt;</code> elements like this:</p>

<pre>
  &lt;path id="path1"&gt;
    ...
  &lt;/&gt;
  &lt;path id="path2"&gt;
    ...
  &lt;/&gt;
</pre>

<p>and the called build file (<code>subbuild.xml</code>) also defines
a <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> with the id <code>path1</code>, but
<code>path2</code> is not defined:</p>

<pre>
  &lt;ant antfile=&quot;subbuild.xml&quot; /&gt;
</pre>

<p>will not override <code>subbuild</code>'s definition of
<code>path1</code>, but make the parent's definition of
<code>path2</code> available in the subbuild. As does:</p>

<pre>
  &lt;ant antfile=&quot;subbuild.xml&quot; inheritall=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;
</pre>

<pre>
  &lt;ant antfile=&quot;subbuild.xml&quot; inheritall=&quot;false&quot; /&gt;
</pre>

<p>will neither override <code>path1</code> nor copy
<code>path2</code>.</p>

<pre>
  &lt;ant antfile=&quot;subbuild.xml&quot; inheritall=&quot;false&quot; &gt;
    &lt;reference refid=&quot;path1&quot; /&gt;
  &lt;/ant&gt;
</pre>

<p>will override <code>subbuild</code>'s definition of
<code>path1</code>.</p>

<pre>
  &lt;ant antfile=&quot;subbuild.xml&quot; inheritall=&quot;false&quot; &gt;
    &lt;reference refid=&quot;path1&quot; torefid=&quot;path2&quot; /&gt;
  &lt;/ant&gt;
</pre>

<p>will copy the parent's definition of <code>path1</code> into the
new project using the id <code>path2</code>.</p>

<hr>
<p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2000,2001 Apache Software Foundation. All rights
Reserved.</p>

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