Best Way to Enforce a File Exists

[Dan Kigelman <dk...@gmail.com>]

Hello,

I am wondering what is the proper/best way to make sure a certain
(executable) file exists on a system.

I am working with a service that executes a certain command (pw.x) when
nicely asked to.  I'm finding that it is quite a pain to make sure that
everything is setup correctly for the service (paths, working directories,
etc).  It would be easier if there was an automatic way to check the setup
is correct. What is the best way to do that?  I see a few options:

1)  a unit-test that asserts that a path defined in the pom.xml (or
settings.xml, or profiles.xml) exists

2)  using the maven-enforcer-plugin to assert the existence of that
directory before building (this involves writing a custom enforcer rule I
think).

3)  same as 2) except writing an ant script to be executed by the
maven-antrun-plugin that checks the same thing


Has anyone encountered this decision before?  (Or have any thoughts on the
issue?)

I'm thinking #2 (or #3 for laziness/proof-of-concept) would be best, but
there could be other issues, like building on one system and deploying on
another...

Suggestions and ideas would be much appreciated!

Thank you,

-- Dan Kigelman

Re: Best Way to Enforce a File Exists

[Dan Kigelman <dk...@gmail.com>]

Thank you Brian!

I did a cop-out for now, and am doing

<plugin>
  <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>check-espresso-path</id>
      <phase>validate</phase>
      <configuration>
        <tasks>
          <available property="espresso-found" file="${espresso.bin}"
type="dir"/>
          <fail message="espresso.bin, '${espresso.bin}', does not point to
an existing directory.  Please fix this where you define espresso.bin (
pom.xml, profiles.xml, or ~/.m2/settings.xml)">
            <condition>
              <isfalse value="${espresso-found}" />
            </condition>
          </fail>
        </tasks>
      </configuration>
      <goals>
        <goal>run</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

I'm planning to make an enforcer rule sometime next week.

Also, the verifier plugin looks similar to the enforcer (except different
default phase, semantics, and capabilities).  I'm a bit curious about
that...  But anyway, since enforcer seems more powerful (no pun inteded :),
it would be nice to copy the file checking of maven-verify-plugin into
maven-enforcer-plugin(-rule??).  I think I will try that.

Thanks again!

-- Dan


On 10/28/07, Brian E. Fox <br...@reply.infinity.nu> wrote:
>
> Enforcer plugin was designed exactly for these kinds of things. It
> shouldn't be hard to create that rule.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Kigelman [mailto:dkigelman@gmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 3:39 PM
> To: Maven Users List
> Subject: Best Way to Enforce a File Exists
>
> Hello,
>
> I am wondering what is the proper/best way to make sure a certain
> (executable) file exists on a system.
>
> I am working with a service that executes a certain command (pw.x) when
> nicely asked to.  I'm finding that it is quite a pain to make sure that
> everything is setup correctly for the service (paths, working
> directories,
> etc).  It would be easier if there was an automatic way to check the
> setup
> is correct. What is the best way to do that?  I see a few options:
>
> 1)  a unit-test that asserts that a path defined in the pom.xml (or
> settings.xml, or profiles.xml) exists
>
> 2)  using the maven-enforcer-plugin to assert the existence of that
> directory before building (this involves writing a custom enforcer rule
> I
> think).
>
> 3)  same as 2) except writing an ant script to be executed by the
> maven-antrun-plugin that checks the same thing
>
>
> Has anyone encountered this decision before?  (Or have any thoughts on
> the
> issue?)
>
> I'm thinking #2 (or #3 for laziness/proof-of-concept) would be best, but
> there could be other issues, like building on one system and deploying
> on
> another...
>
> Suggestions and ideas would be much appreciated!
>
> Thank you,
>
> -- Dan Kigelman
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@maven.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@maven.apache.org
>
>

RE: Best Way to Enforce a File Exists

["Brian E. Fox" <br...@reply.infinity.nu>]

Enforcer plugin was designed exactly for these kinds of things. It
shouldn't be hard to create that rule.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Kigelman [mailto:dkigelman@gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 3:39 PM
To: Maven Users List
Subject: Best Way to Enforce a File Exists

Hello,

I am wondering what is the proper/best way to make sure a certain
(executable) file exists on a system.

I am working with a service that executes a certain command (pw.x) when
nicely asked to.  I'm finding that it is quite a pain to make sure that
everything is setup correctly for the service (paths, working
directories,
etc).  It would be easier if there was an automatic way to check the
setup
is correct. What is the best way to do that?  I see a few options:

1)  a unit-test that asserts that a path defined in the pom.xml (or
settings.xml, or profiles.xml) exists

2)  using the maven-enforcer-plugin to assert the existence of that
directory before building (this involves writing a custom enforcer rule
I
think).

3)  same as 2) except writing an ant script to be executed by the
maven-antrun-plugin that checks the same thing


Has anyone encountered this decision before?  (Or have any thoughts on
the
issue?)

I'm thinking #2 (or #3 for laziness/proof-of-concept) would be best, but
there could be other issues, like building on one system and deploying
on
another...

Suggestions and ideas would be much appreciated!

Thank you,

-- Dan Kigelman

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