diff --git a/docs/index.html b/docs/index.html
index 20d70c5d4..fc15af2c3 100644
--- a/docs/index.html
+++ b/docs/index.html
@@ -12,12 +12,13 @@
 <!-- Names are in alphabetical order, on last name -->
 <ul>
   <li>James Duncan Davison (<a href="mailto:duncan@x180.com">duncan@x180.com</a>)</li>
+  <li>Tom Dimock (<a href="mailto:tad1@cornell.edu">tad1@cornell.edu</a>)</li>
   <li>Arnout J. Kuiper (<a href="mailto:ajkuiper@wxs.nl">ajkuiper@wxs.nl</a>)</li>
   <li>Stefano Mazzocchi (<a href="mailto:stefano@apache.org">stefano@apache.org</a>)</li>
   <li>Sam Ruby (<a href="mailto:rubys@us.ibm.com">rubys@us.ibm.com</a>)</li>
 </ul>
 
-<p>Version 1.0.8 - 2000/03/04</p>
+<p>Version 1.0.8.1 - 2000/06/13</p>
 
 <hr>
 <h2>Table of Contents</h2>
@@ -443,6 +444,18 @@ way to select just the files you want.</p>
 <p>This copies all files in directories called &quot;images&quot;, that are
 located in the directory tree &quot;${src}&quot; to the destination &quot;${dist}&quot;,
 but excludes all &quot;*.gif&quot; files from the copy.</p>
+<h3>Default Excludes</h3>
+<p>There are a set of definitions which are excluded by default from all directory based tasks.
+They are:
+<pre>        &quot;**/*~&quot;,
+        &quot;**/#*#&quot;,
+        &quot;**/%*%&quot;,
+        &quot;**/CVS&quot;,
+        &quot;**/CVS/*&quot;,
+        &quot;**/.cvsignore&quot;
+</pre>
+If you do not want these default excludes applied, you may disable them with the 
+<code>defaultexcludes=&quot;no&quot;</code> attribute.</p>
 <hr>
 <h2><a name="tasks">Built in tasks</a></h2>
 <ul>
@@ -521,7 +534,7 @@ These properties will override the properties that are set in the new project.
 <hr>
 <h2><a name="available">Available</a></h2>
 <h3>Description</h3>
-<p>Sets a property is a resource is available at runtime. This resource can be a
+<p>Sets a property if a resource is available at runtime. This resource can be a
 file resource, a class in classpath or a JVM system resource.</p>
 <p>The value part of the properties being set is <i>true</i> if the resource is
 present, otherwise, the property is not set.</p>
@@ -753,9 +766,20 @@ preferred, because of speed.</p>
 <p>checks out the package/module &quot;jakarta-tools&quot; from the CVS
 repository pointed to by the cvsRoot attribute, and stores the files in &quot;${ws.dir}&quot;.</p>
 <hr>
-<h2><a name="delete">Delete</a></h2>
+    <td valign="top">comma separated list of filenam<h2><a name="delete">Delete</a></h2>
 <h3>Description</h3>
-<p>Deletes a single file.</p>
+<p>Deletes either a single file or
+all files in a specified directory and its sub-directories.</p>
+<p>It is possible to refine the set of files that are being deleted. This can be
+done with the <i>includes</i>, <i>excludes</i> and <i>defaultexcludes</i>
+attributes. With the <i>includes</i> attribute you specify the files you want to
+have included in the deletion process by using patterns. The <i>exclude</i> attribute is used to specify
+the files you want to have excluded from the deletion process. This is also done with patterns. And
+finally with the <i>defaultexcludes</i> attribute, you can specify whether you
+want to use default exclusions or not. See the section on <a
+href="#directorybasedtasks">directory based tasks</a>, on how the
+inclusion/exclusion of files works, and how to write patterns. The patterns are
+relative to the <i>dir</i> directory.</p>
 <h3>Parameters</h3>
 <table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
   <tr>
@@ -765,16 +789,49 @@ repository pointed to by the cvsRoot attribute, and stores the files in &quot;${
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">file</td>
-    <td valign="top">the file to delete.</td>
-    <td valign="top" align="center">Yes</td>
+    <td valign="top">The file to delete.</td>
+    <td align="center" valign="middle" rowspan="2">at least one of the two</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">dir</td>
+    <td valign="top">The directory to delete files from.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">includes</td>
+    <td valign="top">Comma separated list of patterns of files that must be
+      deleted. All files are in the current directory 
+      and any sub-directories are deleted when omitted.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">excludes</td>
+    <td valign="top">Comma separated list of patterns of files that must be
+      excluded from the deletion list. No files (except default excludes) are excluded when omitted.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">defaultexcludes</td>
+    <td valign="top">Indicates whether default excludes should be used or not
+      (&quot;yes&quot;/&quot;no&quot;). Default excludes are used when omitted.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">verbose</td>
+    <td valign="top">Show name of each deleted file (&quot;true&quot;/&quot;false&quot;). Default is "false" when omitted.</td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
 </table>
 <h3>Examples</h3>
 <pre>  &lt;delete file=&quot;/lib/ant.jar&quot; /&gt;</pre>
 <p>deletes the file <code>/lib/ant.jar</code>.</p>
-<pre>  &lt;delete file=&quot;${ant}&quot; /&gt;</pre>
-<p>deletes the file <code>${ant}</code>.</p>
-<hr>
+<pre>  &lt;delete dir=&quot;lib&quot; /&gt;</pre>
+<p>deletes all files in the <code>/lib</code> directory.</p>
+<pre>  &lt;delete dir=&quot;.&quot;
+          include=&quot;**/*.bak&quot;
+  /&gt;
+</pre>
+<p>deletes all files with the extension &quot;<code>.bak</code>&quot from the current directory 
+and any sub-directories.</p>
 <h2><a name="deltree">Deltree</a></h2>
 <h3>Description</h3>
 <p>Deletes a directory with all its files and subdirectories.</p>
@@ -2632,3 +2689,4 @@ from the script.
 </body>
 
 </html>
+
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Delete.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Delete.java
index 76a653d84..3d13d0fe6 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Delete.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Delete.java
@@ -51,36 +51,104 @@
  * information on the Apache Software Foundation, please see
  * <http://www.apache.org/>.
  */
-
 package org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs;
 
 import org.apache.tools.ant.*;
+
 import java.io.*;
 
 /**
- * Deletes a single file.
+ * Deletes a single file or a set of files defined by a pattern.
  *
  * @author stefano@apache.org
+ * @author Tom Dimock <a href="mailto:tad1@cornell.edu">tad1@cornell.edu</a>
  */
+public class Delete extends MatchingTask {
+
+  private File delDir = null;
+  private int verbosity = project.MSG_VERBOSE;
+  private File f = null;
+
+  /**
+   * Set the name of a single file to be removed.
+   *
+   * @param file the file to be deleted
+   */
+  public void setFile(String file) {
+    f = project.resolveFile(file);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Set the directory from which files are to be deleted
+   *
+   * @param dir the directory path.
+   */
+  public void setDir(String dir) {
+    delDir = project.resolveFile(dir);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Used to force listing of all names of deleted files.
+   *
+   * @param verbose "true" or "on"
+   */
+  public void setVerbose(String verbose) {
+
+    if ("true".equalsIgnoreCase(verbose.trim()) || "on".equalsIgnoreCase(verbose.trim())) {
+      this.verbosity = project.MSG_INFO;
+    }
+    else {
+      this.verbosity = project.MSG_VERBOSE;
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Make it so.  Delete the file(s).
+   *
+   * @throws BuildException
+   */
+  public void execute() throws BuildException {
 
-public class Delete extends Task {
+    if (f == null && delDir == null) {
+      throw new BuildException("<file> or <dir> attribute must be set!");
+    }
 
-    private File f;
+    // old <delete> functionality must still work
+    if (f != null) {
+      if (f.exists()) {
+        if (f.isDirectory()) {
+          project
+            .log("Directory: " + f.getAbsolutePath()
+                 + " cannot be removed with delete.  Use Deltree instead.");
+        }
+        else {
+          project.log("Deleting: " + f.getAbsolutePath());
+          f.delete();
+        }
+      }
+    }
 
-    public void setFile(String File) {
-        f = project.resolveFile(File);
+    // now we'll do the fancy pattern-driven deletes
+    if (delDir == null) {
+      return;
     }
+    if (!delDir.exists()) {
+      throw new BuildException("dir does not exist!");
+    }
+    DirectoryScanner ds    = super.getDirectoryScanner(delDir);
+    String[]         files = ds.getIncludedFiles();
+
+    if (files.length > 0) {
+      project.log("Deleting " + files.length + " files from " + delDir.getAbsolutePath());
+      for (int i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
+        File f = new File(delDir, files[i]);
 
-    public void execute() throws BuildException {
         if (f.exists()) {
-            if (f.isDirectory()) { 
-                project.log("Directory: " + f.getAbsolutePath() + 
-                    " cannot be removed with delete.  Use Deltree instead.");
-            } else {
-                project.log("Deleting: " + f.getAbsolutePath());
-                f.delete();
-            }
+          project.log("Deleting: " + f.getAbsolutePath(), verbosity);
+          f.delete();
         }
+      }
     }
+  }
 }