Since Apache Ant 1.8.0
Include another build file into the current project.
Note this task heavily relies on the ProjectHelper implementation and doesn't really perform any work of its own. If you have configured Ant to use a ProjectHelper other than Ant's default, this task may or may not work.
On execution it will read another Ant file into the same project rewriting the included target names and depends lists. This is different from Entity Includes as explained in the Ant FAQ insofar as the target names get prefixed by the included project's name or as attribute and do not appear as if the file was contained in the including file.
The include task may only be used as a top-level task. This means that
it may not be used in a target.
There are two further functional aspects that pertain to this task and that are not possible with entity includes:
Any target in the included file will be renamed to prefix.name
where name
is the
original target's name and prefix
is either the value of the as attribute or
the name attribute of the project tag of the included file.
The depends attribute of all included targets is rewritten so that all target names are prefixed as well. This makes the included file self-contained.
Note that prefixes nest, so if a build file includes a file with prefix q
and the
included file includes another file with prefix b
, then the targets of that last build
file will be prefixed by a.b.
.
<import> contribute to the prefix as well, but only if their as
attribute has been specified.
Included files are treated as they are present in the main buildfile. This makes it easy to understand, but it makes it impossible for them to reference files and resources relative to their path. Because of this, for every included file, Ant adds a property that contains the path to the included buildfile. With this path, the included buildfile can keep resources and be able to reference them relative to its position.
So if I include for example a docsbuild.xml file named builddocs
, I can get
its path as ant.file.builddocs, similarly to the ant.file property of
the main buildfile.
Note that builddocs
is not the filename, but the name attribute present in
the included project tag.
If the included file does not have a name attribute,
the ant.file.projectname property will not be set.
If you need to know whether the current build file's source has been a file or an URL you can
consult the property ant.file.type.projectname (using the same example as
above ant.file.type.builddocs) which either have the value file
or url
.
Suppose your main build file called including.xml includes a build file included.xml, located anywhere on the file system, and included.xml reads a set of properties from included.properties:
<!-- including.xml -->
<project name="including" basedir="." default="...">
<include file="${path_to_included}/included.xml"/>
</project>
<!-- included.xml -->
<project name="included" basedir="." default="...">
<property file="included.properties"/>
</project>
This snippet however will resolve included.properties against the basedir of including.xml, because the basedir of included.xml is ignored by Ant. The right way to use included.properties is:
<!-- included.xml -->
<project name="included" basedir="." default="...">
<dirname property="included.basedir" file="${ant.file.included}"/>
<property file="${included.basedir}/included.properties"/>
</project>
As explained above ant.file.included stores the path of the build script, that
defines the project called included
, (in short it stores the path
to included.xml) and <dirname> takes
its directory. This technique also allows included.xml to be used as a standalone
file (without being included in other project).
The above description only works for included files that actually are included from files and not from URLs. For files included from URLs using resources relative to the included file requires you to use tasks that can work on non-file resources in the first place. To create a relative resource you'd use something like:
<loadproperties>
<url baseUrl="${ant.file.included}"
relativePath="included.properties"/>
</loadproperties>
| Attribute | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| file | The file to include. If this is a relative file name, the file name will be resolved relative to the including file. Note, this is unlike most other ant file attributes, where relative files are resolved relative to ${basedir}. | Yes or a nested resource collection |
| optional | If true, do not stop the build if the file does not exist. |
No; default is false |
| as | Specifies the prefix prepended to the target names. | Yes, if the included file's project tag doesn't specify a name
attribute (which is otherwise taken as default) |
| prefixSeparator | Specifies the separator to be used between the prefix and the target name. | No; defaults to . |
The specified resources will be included.
<include file="../common-targets.xml"/>
Includes targets from the common-targets.xml file that is in a parent directory.
<include file="${deploy-platform}.xml"/>
Includes the project defined by the property deploy-platform
<include>
<javaresource name="common/targets.xml">
<classpath location="common.jar"/>
</javaresource>
</include>
Includes targets from the targets.xml file that is inside the directory common inside the jar file common.jar.
The short version: Use import if you intend to override a target, otherwise
use include.
When import is used, the imported targets are available by up to two names: their
"normal" name without any prefix and potentially with a prefixed name (the value of
the as attribute or the imported project's name attribute, if any).
When include is used, the included targets are only available in the prefixed form.
When import is used, the imported target's depends attribute remains
unchanged, i.e. it uses "normal" names and allows you to override targets in the dependency
list.
When include is used, the included targets cannot be overridden and
their depends attributes are rewritten so that prefixed names are used. This allows
writers of the included file to control which target is invoked as part of the dependencies.
It is possible to include the same file more than once by using different prefixes;
it is not possible to import the same file more than once.
nested.xml shall be:
<project>
<target name="setUp">
<property name="prop" value="in nested"/>
</target>
<target name="echo" depends="setUp">
<echo>prop has the value ${prop}</echo>
</target>
</project>
When using import like in
<project default="test">
<target name="setUp">
<property name="prop" value="in importing"/>
</target>
<import file="nested.xml" as="nested"/>
<target name="test" depends="nested.echo"/>
</project>
Running the build file will emit:
setUp:
nested.echo:
[echo] prop has the value in importing
test:
When using include like in
<project default="test">
<target name="setUp">
<property name="prop" value="in importing"/>
</target>
<include file="nested.xml" as="nested"/>
<target name="test" depends="nested.echo"/>
</project>
Running the target build file will emit:
nested.setUp:
nested.echo:
[echo] prop has the value in nested
test:
and there won't be any target named echo
on the including build file.