## Pathconvert

### Description

Converts nested resource collections, or a reference to just one, into a path form for a particular platform, optionally storing the result into a given property. It can also be used when you need to convert a resource collection into a list, separated by a given character, such as a comma or space, or, conversely, e.g. to convert a list of files in a FileList into a path.

Nested `<map>` elements can be specified to map Windows drive letters to Unix paths, and vice-versa.

More complex transformations can be achieved using a nested `<mapper>` (since Apache Ant 1.6.2).

### Parameters

Attribute | Description | Required
--- | --- | ---
targetos | The target architecture. Must be one of unix, windows, netware, tandem or os/2. This is a shorthand mechanism for specifying both pathsep and dirsep according to the specified target architecture. | No
dirsep | The character(s) to use as the directory separator in the generated paths. | No; defaults to current JVM `File.separator`
pathsep | The character(s) to use as the path-element separator in the generated paths. | No; defaults to current JVM `File.pathSeparator`
property | The name of the property in which to place the converted path. | No, result will be logged if unset
refid | What to convert, given as a reference to a `<path>`, `<fileset>`, `<dirset>`, or `<filelist>` defined elsewhere | Yes, unless a nested `<path>` element is supplied
setonempty | Should the property be set, even if the result is the empty string? | No; default is true
preserveduplicates | Whether to preserve duplicate resources. Since Ant 1.8 | No; default is false

### Parameters specified as nested elements

#### map

Specifies the mapping of path prefixes between Unix and Windows.

Attribute | Description | Required
--- | --- | ---
from | The prefix to match. Note that this value is case-insensitive when the build is running on a Windows platform and case-sensitive when running on a Unix platform. Since Ant 1.7.0, on Windows this value is also insensitive to the slash style used for directories, one can use / or \. | Yes
to | The replacement text to use when from is matched. | Yes

Each map element specifies a single replacement map to be applied to the elements of the path being processed. If no map entries are specified, then no path prefix mapping is performed.

Note: The map elements are applied in the order specified, and only the first matching map element is applied. So, the ordering of your map elements can be important, if any from values are prefixes of other from values.

#### resource collections

If the refid attribute is not specified, then one or more nested resource collections must be supplied.

#### mapper

A single nested `<mapper>` element can be specified to perform any of various filename transformations (since Ant 1.6.2).

### Examples

In the examples below, assume that the `${wl.home}` property has the value `d:\weblogic`, and `${wl.home.unix}` has the value `/weblogic`.

#### Example 1

    <path id="wl.path">
      <pathelement location="${wl.home}/lib/weblogicaux.jar"/>
      <pathelement location="${wl.home}/classes"/>
      <pathelement location="${wl.home}/mssqlserver4/classes"/>
      <pathelement location="c:\winnt\System32"/>
    </path>

    <pathconvert targetos="unix" property="wl.path.unix" refid="wl.path">
      <map from="${wl.home}" to="${wl.home.unix}"/>
      <map from="c:" to=""/>
    </pathconvert>

will generate the path shown below and store it in the property named `wl.path.unix`.

    /weblogic/lib/weblogicaux.jar:/weblogic/classes:/weblogic/mssqlserver4/classes:/WINNT/SYSTEM32

#### Example 2

Given a FileList defined as:

    <filelist id="custom_tasks.jars"
              dir="${env.HOME}/ant/lib"
              files="njavac.jar,xproperty.jar"/>

then:

    <pathconvert targetos="unix" property="custom_tasks.jars" refid="custom_tasks.jars">
      <map from="${env.HOME}" to="/usr/local"/>
    </pathconvert>

will convert the list of files to the following Unix path:

    /usr/local/ant/lib/njavac.jar:/usr/local/ant/lib/xproperty.jar

#### Example 3

    <fileset dir="${src.dir}" id="src.files">
      <include name="**/*.java"/>
    </fileset>

    <pathconvert pathsep="," property="javafiles" refid="src.files"/>

This example takes the set of files determined by the fileset (all files ending in `.java`), joins them together separated by commas, and places the resulting list into the property `javafiles`. The directory separator is not specified, so it defaults to the appropriate character for the current platform. Such a list could then be used in another task, like `javadoc`, that requires a comma separated list of files.

#### Example 4

    <pathconvert property="prop" dirsep="|">
      <map from="${basedir}/abc/" to=""/>
      <path location="abc/def/ghi"/>
    </pathconvert>

This example sets the property `prop` to def|ghi on Windows and on Unix.