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In my ant build-file there is a property:

<property name="pwd" value="" description="value set external"/>

This property is set via GUI by the user. Later I want to call a java task and put the value of the property "pwd" as an argument to the java class:

<java classname="package.and.classname" dir="${directory}" fork="yes" failonerror="true">
     <arg line="-u ${user}"/> 
     <arg line="-p ${pwd}"/> 
     <classpath>
        <pathelement path="[...]"/>            
     </classpath>
  </java>

This works fine until the user has a password containing a single quotation mark (') or a single double quotation mark (").

unbalanced quotes in -p pass'word

Okay - easy workaround for that:

     <arg line="-p &quot;${pwd}&quot;"/>

But the next case is that pwd = pass"word. The error then: "The syntax of the command is incorrect." And what will happen when both (' and ") are used?

I tried to escape the quotes with &quot; and/or &apos; but in the end nothing does really change in the behaviour. Even if i exchange <arg line> with <arg value> for each parameter the problem still persists (but in fact now only for the double quotation mark or in the mixed case).

For example:

<arg value="-u"/>
<arg value="${user}"/>
<arg value="-p"/>
<arg value="${pwd}"/>

can work with pwd=pass'word but not with pwd=pass"word or pwd=pass&quot;word.

Is there any way to tell ant that the value of pwd shouldn't be evaluated?

sarkasronie
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  • I've been working over this one for a few days now and I can't think of a solution. The only thing that's on my mind is, can you deal with the password somehow at the point it is set, rather than at the point it is used? That's the only thing I can think of trying. – jdpjamesp Nov 22 '18 at 08:55
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    "The syntax of the command is incorrect." could be a windows shell error message. It might be worth running Ant in verbose mode to see exactly how java fork is being called in case there is an "extra shell layer" in there tripping up on the args. – martin clayton Dec 04 '18 at 09:40

1 Answers1

-1

Simply use single quotationmarks for the attributevalue with ", f.e.:

<project> 
   <property name="foo" value='b"ar'/>
    <echo>$${foo} => ${foo}</echo>
</project>

output

[echo] ${foo} => b"ar

EDIT

With mixed case

<project> 
   <property name="foo" value="b&quot;a&apos;r"/>
   <echo>$${foo} => ${foo}</echo>
</project>

output

[echo] ${foo} => b"a'r

Seems ant is able to handle this mixed case, but your Java class isn't.

EDIT

With a class like that

public class Foobar
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    System.out.println("args[0] => " + args[0] );
    System.out.println("args[1] => " + args[1] );
    System.out.println("args[2] => " + args[2] );
  }
}

and this ant script:

<project>   
 <java classname="Foobar" classpath=".">
   <arg value="b&quot;a&apos;r"/> 
   <arg value="ba&apos;r"/>
   <arg value="b&quot;ar"/>
 </java>  
</project>

all works as expected, output:

 [java] args[0] => b"a'r
 [java] args[1] => ba'r
 [java] args[2] => b"ar

Note = it works only with arg value, f.e.:

<project>   
 <java classname="Foobar" classpath=".">
   <arg value="-p b&quot;a&apos;r"/> 
   <arg value="-p ba&apos;r"/>
   <arg value="-p b&quot;ar"/>
 </java>  
</project>

output

 [java] args[0] => -p b"a'r
 [java] args[1] => -p ba'r
 [java] args[2] => -p b"ar

whereas

<project> 
 <java classname="Foobar" classpath=".">
   <arg line="-p b&quot;a&apos;r"/> 
   <arg line="-p ba&apos;r"/>
   <arg line="-p b&quot;ar"/>
 </java>
</project>

results in:

unbalanced quotes in -p b"a'r
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