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  <title>Subant Task</title>
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<body>
<h2>Subant Task</h2>
<p><em>Since Apache Ant 1.6</em></p>
<h3 id="description">Description</h3>
<p>Calls a given target for all defined sub-builds.  This is an extension of Ant for bulk project
execution.  <strong>This task must not be used outside of a <code>target</code> if it invokes the
same build file it is part of.</strong></p>

<p><code>subant</code> uses <code>ant</code> internally so many things said
in <a href="ant.html"><code>ant</code>'s manual page</a> apply here as well.</p>

<h3 id="Use-with-directories">Use with directories</h3>
<p><code>subant</code> can be used with directory sets to execute a build from different
directories.  2 different options are offered:</p>
<ul>
  <li>to run the same build file <samp>/somepath/otherpath/mybuild.xml</samp> with different base
    directories, use the <var>genericantfile</var> attribute</li>
  <li>if you want to
    run <samp>directory1/mybuild.xml</samp>, <samp>directory2/mybuild.xml</samp>, <samp>...</samp>,
    use the <var>antfile</var> attribute. The <code>subant</code> task does not set the base
    directory for you in this case, because you can specify it in each build file.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="attributes">Parameters</h3>
<table class="attr">
  <tr>
    <th scope="col">Attribute</th>
    <th scope="col">Description</th>
    <th scope="col">Type</th>
    <th scope="col">Required</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>antfile</td>
    <td>Build file name, to use in conjunction with directories.</td>
    <td>String</td>
    <td>No; defaults to <q>build.xml</q>, ignored if <var>genericantfile</var> is set</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>buildpath</td>
    <td>Set the buildpath to be used to find sub-projects.</td>
    <td>Path</td>
    <td rowspan="8">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>buildpathref</td>
    <td>Buildpath to use, by reference.</td>
    <td class="left">Reference</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>failonerror</td>
    <td>Sets whether to fail with a build exception on error, or go on.</td>
    <td class="left">boolean</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>genericantfile</td>
    <td>Build file path, to use in conjunction with directories.<br/>  Use <var>genericantfile</var>,
      in order to run the same build file with different <var>basedir</var>s.<br/>  If this attribute
      is set, <var>antfile</var> is ignored.</td>
    <td class="left">File</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>inheritall</td>
    <td>Corresponds to <code>&lt;ant&gt;</code>'s <var>inheritall</var> attribute but defaults
      to <q>false</q> in this task.</td>
    <td class="left">boolean</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>inheritrefs</td>
    <td>Corresponds to <code>&lt;ant&gt;</code>'s <var>inheritrefs</var> attribute.</td>
    <td class="left">boolean</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>output</td>
    <td>Corresponds to <code>&lt;ant&gt;</code>'s <var>output</var> attribute.</td>
    <td class="left">String</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>target</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td class="left">String</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>verbose</td>
    <td>Enable/disable log messages showing when each sub-build path is entered/exited.</td>
    <td>boolean</td>
    <td>No; default is <q>false</q></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<h3 id="elements">Parameters as nested elements</h3>
<h4>any filesystem based <a href="../Types/resources.html#collection">resource collection</a></h4>
<p>This includes <code>&lt;fileset&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;dirset&gt;</code>
and <code>&lt;filelist&gt;</code> which are the nested resource collections supported prior to Ant
1.7.</p>
<h4><strong>dirset</strong> (org.apache.tools.ant.types.DirSet)</h4>
Adds a directory set to the implicit build path.
<p><em>Note that the directories will be added to the build path in no particular order, so if order
is significant, one should use a file list instead!</em></p>
<h4><strong>filelist</strong> (org.apache.tools.ant.types.FileList)</h4>
<p>Adds an ordered file list to the implicit build path.</p>
<p><em>Note that contrary to file and directory sets, file lists can reference non-existent files or
directories!</em></p>
<h4><strong>fileset</strong> (org.apache.tools.ant.types.FileSet)</h4>
<p>Adds a file set to the implicit build path.</p>
<p><em>Note that the directories will be added to the build path in no particular order, so if order
is significant, one should use a file list instead!</em></p>
<h4><strong>property</strong> (org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Property)</h4>
<p>Corresponds to <code>&lt;ant&gt;</code>'s nested <code>&lt;property&gt;</code> element.</p>
<p>When more than one nested <code>&lt;property&gt;</code> element would set a property of the same
name, the one declared last will win.  This is for backwards compatibility reasons even so it is
different from the way <code>&lt;property&gt;</code> tasks in build files behave.</p>
<h4><strong>propertyset</strong> (org.apache.tools.ant.types.PropertySet)</h4>
<p>Corresponds to <code>&lt;ant&gt;</code>'s nested <code>&lt;propertyset&gt;</code> element.</p>
<h4><strong>buildpath</strong> (org.apache.tools.ant.types.Path)</h4>
<p>Creates a nested build path, and add it to the implicit build path.</p>
<h4><strong>buildpathelement</strong> (org.apache.tools.ant.types.Path.PathElement)</h4>
<p>Creates a nested <code>&lt;buildpathelement&gt;</code>, and add it to the implicit build
path.</p>
<h4><strong>target</strong> (org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Ant.TargetElement)</h4>
<p><em>Since Ant 1.7</em>.</p>
<p>You can specify multiple targets using nested <code>&lt;target&gt;</code> elements instead of
using the target attribute.  These will be executed as if Ant had been invoked with a single target
whose dependencies are the targets so specified, in the order specified.</p>
<table class="attr">
  <tr>
    <th scope="col">Attribute</th>
    <th scope="col">Description</th>
    <th scope="col">Required</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>name</td>
    <td>The name of the called target.</td>
    <td>Yes</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<h3 id="examples">Examples</h3>

<p>This snippet build file will run <kbd>ant</kbd> in each subdirectory of the project directory,
where a file called <samp>build.xml</samp> can be found. The property <code>build.dir</code> will
have the value <q>subant1.build</q> in the Ant projects called by <code>subant</code>.</p>

<pre>
&lt;project name="subant" default="subant1"&gt;
    &lt;property name="build.dir" value="subant.build"/&gt;
    &lt;target name="subant1"&gt;
        &lt;subant target=""&gt;
            &lt;property name="build.dir" value="subant1.build"/&gt;
            &lt;property name="not.overloaded" value="not.overloaded"/&gt;
            &lt;fileset dir="." includes="*/build.xml"/&gt;
        &lt;/subant&gt;
    &lt;/target&gt;
&lt;/project&gt;</pre>

<p>This snippet build file will run <kbd>ant</kbd> in each subdirectory of the project directory,
where a file called <samp>build.xml</samp> can be found. All properties whose name starts
with <q>foo</q> are passed, their names are changed to start with <q>bar</q> instead</p>

<pre>
&lt;subant target=""&gt;
    &lt;propertyset&gt;
        &lt;propertyref prefix="toplevel"/&gt;
        &lt;mapper type="glob" from="foo*" to="bar*"/&gt;
    &lt;/propertyset&gt;
    &lt;fileset dir="." includes="*/build.xml"/&gt;
&lt;/subant&gt;</pre>

<p>Assuming the subdirs of the project dir are
called <samp>projects1</samp>, <samp>projects2</samp>, <samp>projects3</samp>, this snippet will
execute the <q>compile</q> target of <samp>/opt/project/build1.xml</samp>, setting
the <var>basedir</var> to <q>projects1</q>, <q>projects2</q>, <q>projects3</q></p>

<pre>
&lt;subant target="compile" genericantfile="/opt/project/build1.xml"&gt;
    &lt;dirset dir="." includes="projects*"/&gt;
&lt;/subant&gt;</pre>

<p>Now a little more complex&mdash;but useful&mdash;scenario. Assume that we have a directory
structure like this:</p>

<pre>
root
  |  common.xml
  |  build.xml
  |
  +-- modules
        +-- modA
        |     +-- src
        +-- modB
              +-- src

<b>common.xml:</b><br/>
&lt;project&gt;
    &lt;property name="src.dir"      value="src"/&gt;
    &lt;property name="build.dir"    value="build"/&gt;
    &lt;property name="classes.dir"  value="${build.dir}/classes"/&gt;

    &lt;target name="compile"&gt;
        &lt;mkdir dir="${classes.dir}"/&gt;
        &lt;javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${classes.dir}"/&gt;
    &lt;/target&gt;

    &lt;!-- more targets --&gt;
&lt;/project&gt;

<b>build.xml:</b><br/>
&lt;project&gt;
    &lt;macrodef name="iterate"&gt;
        &lt;attribute name="target"/&gt;
        &lt;sequential&gt;
            &lt;subant target="@{target}"&gt;
                &lt;fileset dir="modules" includes="*/build.xml"/&gt;
            &lt;/subant&gt;
        &lt;/sequential&gt;
    &lt;/macrodef&gt;

    &lt;target name="compile"&gt;
        &lt;iterate target="compile"/&gt;
    &lt;/target&gt;

    &lt;!-- more targets --&gt;
&lt;/project&gt;

<b>modules/modA/build.xml:</b><br/>
&lt;project name="modA"&gt;
    &lt;import file="../../common.xml"/&gt;
&lt;/project&gt;</pre>

<p>This results in very small build files in the modules, maintainable build file
(<samp>common.xml</samp>) and a clear project structure. Additionally the root build file is capable
to run the whole build over all modules.</p>

<p>This task performs a <q>clean build</q> for each subproject.</p>

<pre>
&lt;subant failonerror="false"&gt;
    &lt;fileset dir="." includes="**/build.xml" excludes="build.xml"/&gt;
    &lt;target name="clean"/&gt;
    &lt;target name="build"/&gt;
&lt;/subant&gt;</pre>

<p><strong>Hint</strong>: because build files are plain XML, you could generate the master build
file from the common build file by using a XSLT transformation:</p>

<pre>
&lt;xslt in=&quot;common.xml&quot;
      out=&quot;master.xml&quot;
      style=&quot;${ant.home}/etc/common2master.xsl&quot;/&gt;</pre>
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