All Implemented Interfaces:
Cloneable, Dispatchable

public class Symlink extends DispatchTask
Creates, Deletes, Records and Restores Symlinks.

This task performs several related operations. In the most trivial and default usage, it creates a link specified in the link attribute to a resource specified in the resource attribute. The second usage of this task is to traverse a directory structure specified by a fileset, and write a properties file in each included directory describing the links found in that directory. The third usage is to traverse a directory structure specified by a fileset, looking for properties files (also specified as included in the fileset) and recreate the links that have been previously recorded for each directory. Finally, it can be used to remove a symlink without deleting the associated resource.

Usage examples:

Make a link named "foo" to a resource named "bar.foo" in subdir:

 <symlink link="${dir.top}/foo" resource="${dir.top}/subdir/bar.foo"/>
 

Record all links in subdir and its descendants in files named "dir.links":

 <symlink action="record" linkfilename="dir.links">
    <fileset dir="${dir.top}" includes="subdir/**" />
 </symlink>
 

Recreate the links recorded in the previous example:

 <symlink action="recreate">
    <fileset dir="${dir.top}" includes="subdir/**/dir.links" />
 </symlink>
 

Delete a link named "foo" to a resource named "bar.foo" in subdir:

 <symlink action="delete" link="${dir.top}/foo"/>
 

Note: Starting Ant version 1.10.2, this task relies on the symbolic link support introduced in Java 7 through the Files APIs.

  • Constructor Details

    • Symlink

      public Symlink()
  • Method Details

    • init

      public void init() throws BuildException
      Initialize the task.
      Overrides:
      init in class Task
      Throws:
      BuildException - on error.
    • execute

      public void execute() throws BuildException
      The standard method for executing any task.
      Overrides:
      execute in class Task
      Throws:
      BuildException - on error.
    • single

      public void single() throws BuildException
      Create a symlink.
      Throws:
      BuildException - on error.
      Since:
      Ant 1.7
    • delete

      public void delete() throws BuildException
      Delete a symlink.
      Throws:
      BuildException - on error.
      Since:
      Ant 1.7
    • recreate

      public void recreate() throws BuildException
      Restore symlinks.
      Throws:
      BuildException - on error.
      Since:
      Ant 1.7
    • record

      public void record() throws BuildException
      Record symlinks.
      Throws:
      BuildException - on error.
      Since:
      Ant 1.7
    • setOverwrite

      public void setOverwrite(boolean owrite)
      Set overwrite mode. If set to false (default) the task will not overwrite existing links, and may stop the build if a link already exists depending on the setting of failonerror.
      Parameters:
      owrite - If true overwrite existing links.
    • setFailOnError

      public void setFailOnError(boolean foe)
      Set failonerror mode. If set to true (default) the entire build fails upon error; otherwise the error is logged and the build will continue.
      Parameters:
      foe - If true throw BuildException on error, else log it.
    • setAction

      public void setAction(String action)
      Set the action to be performed. May be "single", "delete", "recreate" or "record".
      Overrides:
      setAction in class DispatchTask
      Parameters:
      action - The action to perform.
    • setLink

      public void setLink(String link)
      Set the name of the link. Used when action = "single".
      Parameters:
      link - The name for the link.
    • setResource

      public void setResource(String src)
      Set the name of the resource to which a link should be created. Used when action = "single".
      Parameters:
      src - The resource to be linked.
    • setLinkfilename

      public void setLinkfilename(String lf)
      Set the name of the file to which links will be written. Used when action = "record".
      Parameters:
      lf - The name of the file to write links to.
    • addFileset

      public void addFileset(FileSet set)
      Add a fileset to this task.
      Parameters:
      set - The fileset to add.
    • deleteSymlink

      @Deprecated public static void deleteSymlink(String path) throws IOException
      Deprecated.
      use Files.delete(Path) instead
      Delete a symlink (without deleting the associated resource).

      This is a convenience method that simply invokes deleteSymlink(File)

      Parameters:
      path - A string containing the path of the symlink to delete.
      Throws:
      IOException - If the deletion attempt fails
    • deleteSymlink

      @Deprecated public static void deleteSymlink(File linkfil) throws IOException
      Deprecated.
      use Files.delete(Path) instead
      Delete a symlink (without deleting the associated resource).

      This is a utility method that removes a symlink without removing the resource that the symlink points to. If it is accidentally invoked on a real file, the real file will not be harmed and instead this method returns silently.

      Since Ant 1.10.2 this method relies on the Files.isSymbolicLink(Path) and Files.delete(Path) to check and delete the symlink

      Parameters:
      linkfil - A File object of the symlink to delete. Cannot be null.
      Throws:
      IOException - If the attempt to delete runs into exception