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From: rubys@us.ibm.com
To: ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org
Message-ID: <852568FF.00007154.00@d54mta04.raleigh.ibm.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 20:04:05 -0400
Subject: Re: Little patch in documentation and question
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Julien Couvreur wrote:
> I just started using Ant, and it seems the build command in the
> documentation is not complete it should be "-Dant.dist.dir=..." instead
> of "-Ddist.dir=...". Since I am not a "commiter" I let this to the one
> in charge.

I checked the latest documentation (in CVS) and everything appears correct.
Perhaps it was already fixed.

> Beside this, I would like to know if it is possible to call another
> build.xml from a target (<ant target="..." .../>), which would be
> better than "<java ...ant .../>".

Absolutely.  If you have the documentation, take a look at
jakarta-ant/docs/index.html#ant

> Also why is there not a <if try="target1" then="target2"/
else="target3"/>
> construction ? Wouldn't it be useful ? It would be easier to read than
> using the actually  depends="..." if="..."  construction ?

This is a long discussion.  People have proposed everything from for loops
and the like.  The general reaction of the group has been that we do not
want to reinvent that which we don't like about make.

Note: depends is not a conditional construct, but a declarative means of
stating how the individual targets are to be ordered.

> And last but not least, is there any way a custom task may modify
> the properties in the environment that called it ?

If you are talking about the external operating system environment, then
no.  If you are talking about the values of properties used within Ant,
then you can use:

   this.project.setProperty(property, value);

- Sam Ruby