Myrmidon includes a Virtual File System (VFS), which allows files from different sources to be treated identically. The VFS currently supports the following file types:

File System	Description	URL Format
Local Files	Files on the local file system.	Three different formats are currently supported for local file names: file:// absolute-file-name Absolute file names Relative file names. These are resolved relative to the project's base directory.
Zip Files	The contents of Zip files (and Jar, War, and Ear files). Currently, the VFS supports read-only access to Zip file contents.	zip: zip-file-uri [!absolute-path]
FTP	Files on an FTP server.	ftp:// [[password:] username@] hostname [:port] [absolute-path]
SMB	Files on a CFIS server, such as Samba or Windows shares.	smb:// [[password:] username@] hostname [:port] [absolute-path]

Both forward or backward slashes can be used to separate the elements of a URL.

Here are some example URLs:

• build/classes
• c:\program files\ant\bin
• file://C:/program files/ant
• zip:build/lib/ant.jar!/org/apache/tools
• ftp://adam@somehost/pub/downloads
• smb://password:adam@somehost/home/adam

Currently, there are only a handful of VFS aware tasks. This will grow as more tasks are ported to the new API, and data types.

File Sets

A file set in Myrmidon is more general than Ant 1's concept of a file set. Firstly, there is more than one type of file set. Secondly, they are VFS enabled. File sets are automatically converted to a path, and so can be used anywhere that a path can. <v-fileset> This is the equivalent of Ant 1's <fileset> (The name is temporary, it will be changed to <fileset> once more porting work as been completed). Rather than use a set of include and exclude patterns to choose the files that make up the file set, <v-fileset> takes zero or more file selectors. File selectors can be used to select files based on any attribute of the file, rather than just the name. You can use <name> selectors to achieve the same result as using includes or excludes. A <v-fileset> element takes the following attributes: Attribute Description Default Value dir The base directory for the file set. This can be any URL that the VFS supports. Required A <v-fileset> element takes any number of nested file selector elements. To be included in the file set, a file must be selected by all the file selectors. That is, the file selectors are implicitly AND-ed together. If no file selector is provided, all the files and directories are included in the set. An example: <v-fileset dir="src"> <name pattern="org/apache/tools/ant/**"/> <is-file/> </v-fileset> <flat-fileset> This file set takes a set of nested file sets and paths, and flattens them into a single directory. It can be used as a way of converting a path into a file set. It can also be used as a replacement for the flatten attribute for the copy and move tasks. A <flat-fileset> element takes no attributes, and a set of nested paths or file sets. An example: <v-copy todir="dist/lib"> <flat-fileset> <v-fileset dir="build/lib"> <basename pattern="*.jar"/> <v-fileset> <v-path path="${classpath}"/> </flat-fileset> </v-copy> <mapped-fileset> A fileset that applies a file name mapper to a nested fileset.

Paths

Paths are an ordered list of files. <v-path> This is the equivalent of Ant 1's <path>. <filtered-path> A path that applies file selectors to a set of nested file sets and paths.

File Selectors

File selectors are used to select files from file sets and paths. <and> Combines zero or more file selectors, using AND. An empty <and> selector accepts all files. <basename> Selects files whose base name matches an Ant 1 style pattern, or a regular expression. <condition> Takes a set of conditions. If the conditions evaluate to true, then select every file. Otherwise, select no files. <exists> Selects files that exist. <is-empty-folder> Selects empty folders, that is, folders that have no children. <is-folder> Selects folders, does not select regular files. <is-file> Selects regular files, does not select folders. <name> Selects files whose path in a file set matches an Ant 1 style pattern, or a regular expression. <not> Selects files that are not selected by a nested file selector. <or> Combines zero or more file selectors, using OR. An empty <or> selector accepts all files. <url> Selects files whose URL matches an Ant 1 style pattern, or a regular expression.