Let's talk properties files...

[Diane Holt <ho...@yahoo.com>]

Since (among all the other java- and xml-oriented things) I'm new to
properties and properties files as well, I'm just now starting to look
into getting rid of most of the <property name="foo"...> tasks in my build
files, and relying more on properties files instead. So I'm curious as to
how other people have been using them, how well it's working out
(positives/gotchas), etc. 

For example, I'm thinking of having "additive" files, where one file
relies on properties set in another file. I'm assuming if I do that, then
the order in which the properties files are read in will matter. For
example, if I have a release.properties file that contains:
  major=1
  minor=0
  maint=0
and I reference those properties in another properties file, say, a
sysinfo.properties file:
  version=${major}.${minor}.${maint}
will release.properties have to have been read in (<property file=...>)
before I read in any other properties file that references major, minor,
maint? -- or does it not matter, so long as release.properties is read in
before ${version} is actually used in a task somewhere?

Any other hints/ideas/suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks,
Diane

=====
(holtdl@yahoo.com)



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Re: Let's talk properties files...

[Stefan Bodewig <bo...@bost.de>]

>>>>> "DH" == Diane Holt <ho...@yahoo.com> writes:

 DH> For example, I'm thinking of having "additive" files, where one
 DH> file relies on properties set in another file. I'm assuming if I
 DH> do that, then the order in which the properties files are read in
 DH> will matter.

Yes, that's right. Prior to Ant 1.1 you could have encountered
problems with properties referencing properties in the same file, but
this has been resolved (and I know you use 1.2 ;-).

Stefan