diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Filter.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Filter.java
index 5d2042ba3..9af0aa1f6 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Filter.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Filter.java
@@ -54,19 +54,27 @@
 
 package org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs;
 
+import java.util.Enumeration;
+import java.util.Properties;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+
 import org.apache.tools.ant.*;
 
 /**
- * This task set a token filter that is used by the file copy methods
- * of the project to do token substitution.
+ * This task sets a token filter that is used by the file copy methods
+ * of the project to do token substitution, or sets mutiple tokens by
+ * reading these from a file.
  *
  * @author Stefano Mazzocchi <a href="mailto:stefano@apache.org">stefano@apache.org</a>
+ * @author Gero Vermaas <a href="mailto:gero@xs4all.nl">gero@xs4all.nl</a>
  */
 public class Filter extends Task {
 
     private String token;
     private String value;
-
+    private File filtersFile;
+    
     public void setToken(String token) {
         this.token = token;
     }
@@ -75,11 +83,43 @@ public class Filter extends Task {
         this.value = value;
     }
 
+    public void setFiltersfile(File filterFile) {
+        this.filtersFile = filtersFile;
+    }
+
     public void execute() throws BuildException {
-        if (token == null || value == null) {
-            throw new BuildException("token and value are required", location);
+        boolean isFiltersFromFile = filtersFile != null && token == null && value == null;
+        boolean isSingleFilter = filtersFile == null && token != null && value != null;
+        
+        if (!isFiltersFromFile && !isSingleFilter) {
+            throw new BuildException("both token and value parameters, or only a filtersFile parameter is required", location);
+        }
+        
+        if (isSingleFilter) {
+            project.addFilter(token, value);
         }
+        
+        if (isFiltersFromFile) {
+            readFilters();
+        }
+    }
+    
+    protected void readFilters() throws BuildException {
+        log("Reading filters from " + filtersFile, Project.MSG_VERBOSE);
+        try {
+            Properties props = new Properties();
+            props.load(new FileInputStream(filtersFile));
 
-        project.addFilter(token, value);
+            Project proj = getProject();
+
+            Enumeration enum = props.propertyNames();		
+            while (enum.hasMoreElements()) {
+                String strPropName = (String)enum.nextElement();
+                String strValue = props.getProperty(strPropName);
+                proj.addFilter(strPropName, strValue);
+            }
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            throw new BuildException("Could not read filters from file: " + filtersFile);
+        }
     }
 }