Question

I’m using ANT 1.7.0

I’d like to create a target that on call, will append text to a string (saved in property).

for example:

<property name="str.text" value="" />

<target name="append.to.property" >
  <property name="temp.text" value="${str.text}${new.text}" />
  <property name="str.text" value="${temp.text}" />
</target>

The problem is that I can’t overwrite the property value in one target and read the changed value in another target.

How do I append a string to a property in ant?

Answer 1

You can’t change value of property in Ant.

You may use Ant Contrib variable task (see http://ant-contrib.sourceforge.net/tasks/tasks/variable_task.html) which provide mutable properties.

<property name="str.text" value="A" />
<property name="new.text" value="B"/>

<target name="append.to.property" >
  <var name="temp.text" value="${str.text}${new.text}" />
  <var name="str.text" value="${temp.text}" />
</target>

<target name="some.target" depends="append.to.property">
  <echo message=${str.text}/>
</target>