MacroDef

Since Apache Ant 1.6

Description

This defines a new task using a <sequential> nested task as a template. Nested elements <attribute> and <element> are used to specify attributes and elements of the new task. These get substituted into the <sequential> task when the new task is run.

Note

You can also use prior defined attributes for default values in other attributes. See the examples.

Parameters

Parameters specified as nested elements

attribute

This is used to specify attributes of the new task. The values of the attributes get substituted into the templated task. The attributes will be required attributes unless a default value has been set.

This attribute is placed in the body of the templated task using a notation similar to the Ant property notation—@{attribute name}. (May be remembered as "put the substitution AT this location").

The escape sequence @@ is used to escape @. This allows @{x} to be placed in the text without substitution of x by using @@{x}. This corresponds to the $$ escape sequence for properties.

The case of the attribute is ignored, so @{myAttribute} is treated the same as @{MyAttribute}.

Parameters

element

This is used to specify nested elements of the new task. The contents of the nested elements of the task instance are placed in the templated task at the tag name.

The case of the element name is ignored.

Parameters

text

This is used to specify the treatment of text contents of the macro invocation. If this element is not present, then any nested text in the macro invocation will be an error. If the text element is present, then the name becomes an attribute that gets set to the nested text of the macro invocation. Since Ant 1.6.1.

The case of the text name is ignored.

Parameters

Examples

The following example defined a task called testing and runs it.

<macrodef name="testing">
    <attribute name="v" default="NOT SET"/>
    <element name="some-tasks" optional="yes"/>
    <sequential>
        <echo>v is @{v}</echo>
        <some-tasks/>
    </sequential>
</macrodef>

<testing v="This is v">
    <some-tasks>
        <echo>this is a test</echo>
    </some-tasks>
</testing>

The following fragment defines a task called <call-cc> which take the attributes target, link and target.dir and the nested element cc-elements. The body of the task uses the <cc> task from the ant-contrib project.

<macrodef name="call-cc">
    <attribute name="target"/>
    <attribute name="link"/>
    <attribute name="target.dir"/>
    <element name="cc-elements"/>
    <sequential>
        <mkdir dir="${obj.dir}/@{target}"/>
        <mkdir dir="@{target.dir}"/>
        <cc link="@{link}" objdir="${obj.dir}/@{target}"
            outfile="@{target.dir}/@{target}">
            <compiler refid="compiler.options"/>
            <cc-elements/>
        </cc>
    </sequential>
</macrodef>

This then can be used as follows:

<call-cc target="unittests" link="executable"
         target.dir="${build.bin.dir}">
   <cc-elements>
      <includepath location="${gen.dir}"/>
      <includepath location="test"/>
      <fileset dir="test/unittest" includes = "**/*.cpp"/>
      <fileset dir="${gen.dir}" includes = "*.cpp"/>
      <linker refid="linker-libs"/>
   </cc-elements>
</call-cc>

The following fragment shows <call-cc>, but this time using an implicit element and with the link and target.dir arguments having default values.

<macrodef name="call-cc">
   <attribute name="target"/>
   <attribute name="link" default="executable"/>
   <attribute name="target.dir" default="${build.bin.dir}"/>
   <element name="cc-elements" implicit="yes"/>
   <sequential>
      <mkdir dir="${obj.dir}/@{target}"/>
      <mkdir dir="@{target.dir}"/>
         <cc link="@{link}" objdir="${obj.dir}/@{target}"
             outfile="@{target.dir}/@{target}">
             <compiler refid="compiler.options"/>
             <cc-elements/>
         </cc>
      </sequential>
</macrodef>

This then can be used as follows, note that <cc-elements> is not specified.

<call-cc target="unittests">
   <includepath location="${gen.dir}"/>
   <includepath location="test"/>
   <fileset dir="test/unittest" includes = "**/*.cpp"/>
   <fileset dir="${gen.dir}" includes = "*.cpp"/>
   <linker refid="linker-libs"/>
</call-cc>
    

The following shows the use of the text element.

<macrodef name="echotest">
   <text name="text"/>
   <sequential>
      <echo>@{text}</echo>
   </sequential>
</macrodef>
<echotest>
   Hello world
</echotest>
    

The following uses a prior defined attribute for setting the default value of another. The output would be one=test two=test. If you change the order of lines *1 and *2 the output would be one=test two=@{one}, because while processing the two-line the value for one is not set.

<macrodef name="test">
   <attribute name="one"/>                     *1
   <attribute name="two" default="@{one}"/>    *2
   <sequential>
      <echo>one=@{one}   two=@{two}</echo>
   </sequential>
</macrodef>
<test one="test"/>