Question

I have two directories, say, A and B. A has several files: a1, a2, a3. B also has several files: b1, b2.
First, I use the following ant tasks to copy all the files from B to A.

<copy todir="A" verbose="true">
    <fileset dir="B" includes="*"/>
</copy>

Then I want to undo the steps, i.e. delete the files in A which are copied from B, namely b1 and b2. How can I achieve the goals?

NOTE: the file names in the example are just used for us to understand the problem. I do not know the exact file names in the two directories.

Answer 1

You should use a Selector to populate the FileSet of those files you want to delete. Try the Present Selector. Here’s a target to complement your example:

<target name="copy" >
<copy todir="A" verbose="true">
    <fileset dir="B" includes="*"/>
</copy>
</target>

<target name="uncopy" >
<delete verbose="true">
    <fileset dir="A" >
        <present present="both" targetdir="B"/>
    </fileset>
</delete>
</target>