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<h2><a name="ant">Ant</a></h2>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>Runs Ant on a supplied buildfile. This can be used to build subprojects.</p>
<p>When the <i>antfile</i> attribute is omitted, the file "build.xml"
in the supplied directory (<i>dir</i> attribute) is used.</p>
<p>If no target attribute is supplied, the default target of the new project is
used.</p>
<p>By default, all of the properties of the current project will be
available in the new project. Alternatively, you can
set the <i>inheritAll</i> attribute to <code>false</code> and only
"user" properties (i.e., those passed on the command-line)
will be passed to the new project. In either case, the set of
properties passed to the new project will override the properties that
are set in the new project (See also the <a href="property.html">property task</a>).</p>
<p>You can also set properties in the new project from the old project by
using nested property tags. These properties are always passed regardless of the
setting of <i>inheritAll</i>. This allows you to parameterize your subprojects.</p>
<h3>Parameters</h3>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
<td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
<td align="center" valign="top"><b>Required</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">antfile</td>
<td valign="top">the buildfile to use. Defaults to
"build.xml". This file is expected to be a filename
relative to the dir attribute given.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">dir</td>
<td valign="top">the directory to use as a basedir for the new Ant project.
Defaults to the current project's basedir, unless
inheritall has been set to false, in which case it doesn't
have a default value. This will override the basedir
setting of the called project.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">target</td>
<td valign="top">the target of the new Ant project that should be executed.
Defaults to the new project's default target.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">output</td>
<td valign="top">Filename to write the ant output to.
</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">inheritAll</td>
<td valign="top">If <code>true</code>, pass all properties to the new Ant
project. Defaults to <code>true</code>.
</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h4>Basedir of the new project</h4>
<p>The basedir value of the new project is affected by the two
attributes dir and inheritall, see the following table for
details:</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>dir attribute</b></td>
<td valign="top"><b>inheritAll attribute</b></td>
<td valign="top"><b>new project's basedir</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">value provided</td>
<td valign="top">true</td>
<td valign="top">value of dir attribute</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">value provided</td>
<td valign="top">false</td>
<td valign="top">value of dir attribute</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">omitted</td>
<td valign="top">true</td>
<td valign="top">basedir of calling project (the one whose build
file contains the <ant> task).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">omitted</td>
<td valign="top">false</td>
<td valign="top">basedir attribute of the <project> element
of the new project</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h3>Examples</h3>
<pre>
<ant antfile="subproject/subbuild.xml" dir="subproject" target="compile"/>
<ant dir="subproject"/>
<ant antfile="subproject/property_based_subbuild.xml">
<property name="param1" value="version 1.x"/>
<property file="config/subproject/default.properties"/>
</ant>
<ant inheritAll="false" antfile="subproject/subbuild.xml">
<property name="output.type" value="html"/>
</ant>
</pre>
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<p align="center">Copyright © 2000,2001 Apache Software Foundation. All rights
Reserved.</p>
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