Ant exec command argument dealing with multiple files

Question

I am using ant exec command to implement the less utility to view the source code of a bunch of .java files. (I know that there are other ways to do this like using concat)

So the call ant view works if I specify only one file:

<target name="view">
    <exec executable="less" dir=".">
        <arg value="Main.java"/>
    </exec>
</target>

But if I change my code to <arg value="*.java"/> to view all files, it actually searches for a file named *.java.

Apparently I can put a bunch of arg's for each file, but is there a way to do this with one arg ?

Passing `*.java` as an `arg value` works for me and prints out all java source files (ant 1.8.3 - windows/cygwin). What OS/ant version? — copeg, May 21 '15 at 18:19

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered May 22 '15 at 04:06

The * glob is expanded by the shell on Unix-likes, that's why less doesn't do it itself.

Apart from <exec> there is <apply> which works on a resource collection:

<apply executable="less" dir="." parallel="true" relative="true">
  <fileset dir="." includes="*.java"/>
</apply>

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 21 '15 at 19:01

2

You can use foreach which requires ant-contrib

<target name="view">
  <foreach target="call-less" param="file">
    <fileset dir="${src}" includes="**/*.java" />
  </foreach>
</target>

<target name="call-less">
    <exec executable="less">
        <arg value="${file}" />
    </exec>
</target>

answered May 21 '15 at 19:01

Oleg Pavliv

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Does this execute as many `less` processes as files? – ceving Sep 17 '20 at 07:20

Ant exec command argument dealing with multiple files

2 Answers2