Apache Commons VFS – Ant Tasks

Ant Tasks

Commons VFS includes several Ant tasks that can be used to create, delete, copy and move files of any supported type. The tasks are:

<v-copy> . Copies a set of source folders and files to a destination folder.
<v-delete> . Deletes a file or folder.
<v-mkdir> . Creates a folder.
<v-move> . Moves a set of source folders and files to a destination folder.
<v-sync> . Synchronises a destination folder with a set of source folder and files.

All file name attributes support relative and absolute local file names, and absolute URI . File names are interpreted relative to the Ant project's base directory.

Using the Tasks

To use the Ant tasks, copy commons-vfs.jar and its dependencies into the $ANT_HOME/lib directory, and use the following in your Ant scipt to define the tasks:

<taskdef resource="org/apache/commons/vfs2/tasks/tasks.properties"/>

Alternatively, you can provide an explicit classpath when you define the tasks:

<taskdef resource="org/apache/commons/vfs2/tasks/tasks.properties">
    <classpath> ... </classpath>
</taskdef>

You can also use antlib:
Notice: VFS tasks registered that way do not have te "v-" prefix. If you migrate to antlib simply replace "v-" by e.g. "vfs:" or whatever namespace you use.

<project ... xmlns:vfs="antlib:org.apache.commons.vfs2.tasks">
    <target name="dosomething">
        <vfs:copy .../>
    </target>
</project>

V-Copy

Copies a set of files to a destination folder. Does not copy source files where the destination file exists and is newer than the source file. The copy task takes the following attributes:

Name	Description	Required
destdir	The destination folder. This folder is created if it does not exist.	One only
destfile	The destination file. Can only be used if there is a single source file.	One only
srcdir	The source folder. If used the includes and desdir attributes should be specified.	No
includes	A comma or space separated list of files. The files are resolved in combination with the specified srcdir attribute.	Only if srcdir is specified.
overwrite	Always copy files, ignoring the last-modified time of the destination file.	No, default is `false` .
preservelastmodified	Set the last-modified time of destination files to the same value as the source files. May not be supported by the destination file system.	No, default is `true` .
srcdirisbase	Set whether the source directory should be used as base directory. If set to true, the subdirectories of the specified directories will be copied as well.	No, default is `false` .
src	A source file or folder to copy. Copies all descendents of a folder.	No

Nested Elements

<src>

Defines a source file or folder to copy. It takes the following attributes:

Name	Description	Required
file	The source file.	Yes

V-Move

Moves a set of files to a destination folder. Has the same attributes and elements as the copy task and following attributes:

Name	Description	Required
tryRename	The destination folder. This folder is created if it does not exist.	No, default is `false`

V-Sync

Synchronises a destination folder with a set of source files. Has the same attributes and elements as the copy task.

V-Delete

Deletes a file or folder. It takes the following attributes:

Name	Description	Required
file	The file or folder to delete. All descendents of the folder are deleted.	One only
srcdir	The source folder. If used the includes attribute should be specified.	One only
includes	A comma or space separated list of files. The files are resolved in combination with the specified srcdir attribute.	Only if srcdir is specified.

V-Mkdir

Creates a folder. It takes the following attributes:

Name	Description	Required
dir	The folder create.	Yes