Question

I am trying to execute cmd.exe /C echo Please write this to a file >> output.txt using ant <exec> task. This command works fine when executed from command line. But does not work when executed using ant. Here is what I am trying to do.

 <exec executable="${env.ComSpec}" osfamily="windows">
    <arg value="/C"/>
    <arg value="echo"/>
    <arg value="Please write this to file"/>
    <arg value=">>"/>
    <arg value="output.txt"/>
</exec>

Can somebody tell me where I am going wrong?

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Answer 1

The >> is not an argument to cmd.exe you are about to execute, but to the current shell

Try the output parameter of the exec ant task

<exec executable="${env.ComSpec}" osfamily="windows" output="output.txt"> 
  <arg value="/C"/> 
  <arg value="echo"/> 
  <arg value="Please write this to file"/> 
</exec>