Find working directory from Ant

Question

Is it possible to tell which directory the user ran Ant from?

For example, I might want to run only the unit tests in the current working directory, rather than all tests for the entire project.

I tried this:

<property environment="env" />
<echo>${env.CWD}</echo>

but that doesn't work.

CWD is not part of a typical Windows set of environment variables. How are you setting it? The answer @Asaph provided is way more strightforward. — DaveParillo, Oct 20 '09 at 18:16

score 66 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 24 '17 at 09:23

66

The whole Properties object returned by System.getProperties() is exposed by Ant. Try this:

<echo>${user.dir}</echo>

edited Oct 24 '17 at 09:23

zb226

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answered Oct 20 '09 at 18:06

Asaph

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score 45 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 22 '11 at 13:03

45

${basedir} might also be useful.

In Netbeans under Linux, ${user.dir} seems always to equal ${user.home}, but ${basedir} gives me actual directory where ant is ran from (so it gives me the project dir).

answered Feb 22 '11 at 13:03

java.is.for.desktop

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By default, basedir is the parent directory of the buildfile. This is not necessarily the same as the *working directory.* – Andy Thomas Jun 28 '11 at 21:40
That actually is exactly my problem. I can't figure out how to get my working directory to be some other directory when I invoke my ant script from a different ant script in another directory. I see user.dir is the directory of the calling ant script, and basedir is the directory that I want to execute my ant script from. I call my ant script using ``, but that only changes the basedir and not the current working directory. – searchengine27 Aug 09 '16 at 19:43
${basedir} resolves to the directory containing the build file when/if you execute Ant with the *-f somebuildfileinsomeotherpath* flag. So that's not a good flag to use to get the current directory from where you are invoking ant. – luis.espinal Mar 21 '19 at 15:54

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 19 '13 at 20:46

1

Unless you're using Windows, this will give you the current working directory:

<exec executable="sh" outputproperty="my.cwd"><arg line="-c pwd"/></exec>

answered Aug 19 '13 at 20:46

user2697803

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The command works, but it is against the Ant spirit "write once, build everywhere" as it does not run under Windows. – Ameba Spugnosa Dec 03 '14 at 13:17

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 05 '18 at 08:49

0

and under windows

<exec executable="cmd" outputproperty="my.cwd"><arg line="/C echo %cd%"/></exec>

see also Using ant to detect os and set property

answered Dec 05 '18 at 08:49

culmat

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Find working directory from Ant

4 Answers4