Whereas FileSets act as filters, returning only those files that exist in the file system and match specified patterns, FileLists are useful for specifying files that may or may not exist. In addition, patternsets can be defined as a stand alone element at the same level as target - i.e., as children of project as well as as children of target.įileLists are explicitly named lists of files. They are defined via a patternset element, which can appear nested into a FileSet or a directory-based task that constitutes an implicit FileSet. Patterns can be grouped to sets and later be referenced by their id attribute. Selectors are a mechanism whereby the files that make up a can be selected based on criteria other than filename as provided by the and tags.

These files can be found in a directory tree starting in a base directory and are matched by patterns taken from a number of PatternSets and Selectors. This class is meant to be used by classes needing to record path and date/time information about a file, a zip entry or some similar resource (URL, archive in a version control repository. The core methods to set/resolve the classpath are provided.ĭescribes a 'File-like' resource (File, ZipEntry, etc.). A path might also be described as a collection of unique filesystem resources.ĬlassPathis an implementation of AbstractClasspathResource:Ī Resource representation of anything that is accessed via a Java classloader. This object represents a path as used by CLASSPATH or PATH environment variable. Is there a way to simplify this while still processing the fewest files in a complex directory structure? Notice there's a number of conversions between filesets, paths and comma separated list just to get the proper 'type' required for the different ant tasks.

For instance there has to be an easier way to compile only those classes in one package while removing all class dependencies on the package classes and update documentation. Another thing I can't find in the documentation is a description of the relationships between filelist, fileset, patternset and path and how to convert them back and forth. I've found a page that describes path like structures but it doesn't list the valid attributes or nested elements for these. I'm looking over the documentation that comes with Apache Ant version 1.8.0 and can't find where classpath, path and pathelement are documented.

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