"Call" task

[Dale Anson <da...@germane-software.com>]

Just sharing --

A common question on this list is how to get a property set in a target 
after doing an <antcall>, the common answer is "you can't". I wrote a 
very simple task, so simple in fact that I've included the complete code 
below. Like AntCall, this task just calls a target in the current build 
file. The difference is that all properties from the calling target are 
available to the called target, and any properties set by the called 
target are immediately available in the calling target. Makes me wonder 
why AntCall wasn't written like this?

<shameless plug>
I posted a new version of Antelope today, 
http://antelope.sourceforge.net. This task is included.
</shameless plug>

package ise.antelope.tasks;

import org.apache.tools.ant.Task;
import org.apache.tools.ant.BuildException;

public class Call extends Task {
    private String target = null;
    public void setTarget(String target) {
     this.target = target;    }
    public void execute() {
     if (target == null)
        throw new BuildException("target is required");
     getProject().executeTarget(target);
  }
}


Dale Anson

Re: "Call" task

[Steve Loughran <st...@iseran.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dale Anson" <da...@germane-software.com>
To: "Ant Users List" <us...@ant.apache.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 14:01
Subject: "Call" task


> Just sharing --
>
> A common question on this list is how to get a property set in a target
> after doing an <antcall>, the common answer is "you can't". I wrote a
> very simple task, so simple in fact that I've included the complete code
> below. Like AntCall, this task just calls a target in the current build
> file. The difference is that all properties from the calling target are
> available to the called target, and any properties set by the called
> target are immediately available in the calling target. Makes me wonder
> why AntCall wasn't written like this?

Because the authors didnt want it that way?

Right now <ant> and <antcall> effectively take a new environment down with
them. If you set all properties by the called target then you cannot <ant>
the same target twice and be sure it works, because in ant you cannot
overwrite properties.