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Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 17:35:45 -0400
Subject: RE: another request for help....
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If you check the docs, you will see that the ant task supportes nested
property elements. =A0So to accomplish what you want, you can use

<ant antfile=3D"unit.xml">
=A0 <property name=3D"first" value=3D"1"/>
=A0 <property name=3D"second" value=3D"2" />
</ant>

<ant antfile=3D"unit.xml">
=A0 <property name=3D"first" value=3D"3" />
=A0 <property name=3D"second" value=3D"4" />
</ant>

Just make sure you haven't defined properties "first" and "second" anyw=
here
in the build file.

If unit.xml is small with a single target (say "doit"), you may want to=

consider using the antcall task.

<target name=3D"doit">
=A0 <!-- whatever you do... -->
</target>

<antcall target=3D"doit">
=A0 <property name=3D"first" value=3D"1"/>
=A0 <property name=3D"second" value=3D"2" />
</antcall>

The antcall task is really calling the current buildfile again, with th=
e
target attribute the default target. =A0The advantage to doing it this =
way is
that everything is in one file. =A0 The drawback is that it isn't docum=
ented
yet (at least as far as I could see).

Glenn McAllister
TID - Software Developer - VisualAge for Java
IBM Toronto Lab, (416) 448-3805
"An approximate answer to the right question is better than the
right answer to the wrong question." - John W. Tukey


Please respond to ant-user@jakarta.apache.org

To: =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0ant-user@jakarta.apache.org
cc:
Subject: =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0RE: another request for help....

Well, what you suggest is exactly what I want to do, but properties are=

immutable (See results of your suggestion below). =A0Property !=3D vari=
able (I
learned this the hard way :-). =A0The XML files are parsed to completio=
n
before
they are invoked in any way, thus it really isn't possible to have a
"variable"
in the traditional sense.

Any ideas on how we can have "variables" in Ant buildfiles? =A0Otherwis=
e, I'm
gonna hafta go running back to gnumake for a while :-(



> So your global build file would be like :
>
>
> <property name=3D"first" value=3D"1">
> <ant buildfile=3D"unit.xml">
>
> <property name=3D"first" value=3D"2">
> <ant buildfile=3D"unit.xml">
>
>
> Hope you got what I'm getting at.
>
Yeah, here's an example buildfile snippet:

=A0 <target name=3D"common_subject">
=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0<property name=3D"first" value=3D"foo"/>
=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0<property name=3D"second" value=3D"bar"/>
=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0<ant antfile=3D"build_nothing.xml"/>

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 <property name=3D"first" value=3D"baz"/>
=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0<property name=3D"second" value=3D"buz"/>
=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0<ant antfile=3D"build_nothing.xml"/>

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 <property name=3D"first" value=3D"this"/>
=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0<property name=3D"second" value=3D"that"/>
=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0<ant antfile=3D"build_nothing.xml"/>
=A0</target>

And this is the result (had to turn "verbose" on to see it):
+Target: common_subject
=A0 +Task: property
Setting project property: first -> foo
=A0 +Task: property
Setting project property: second -> bar
=A0 +Task: ant
=A0 +Task: property
[property] Override ignored for first
=A0 +Task: property
[property] Override ignored for second
=A0 +Task: ant
=A0 +Task: property
[property] Override ignored for first
=A0 +Task: property
[property] Override ignored for second
=A0 +Task: ant


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