What's the difference between a nested path and fileset?

Question

I have been googling for the \"Differences between fileset and path\" article for some time, but have found nothing useful. For example, what is the difference between the follo

Answer 1

They are used in different situations.

fileset is used to specify a group of files. You can use selectors and patternsets to get only the files you want.

classpath is used to specify classpath references. classpath can be specified with a single jar (location="..."), a ; or : separated list of jars (path="...") or with nested resource collections (like fileset).

Also if you want to debug them, it is different:

<echo message="Build-path: ${toString:build-path}" />

vs

<property name="debug.classpath" refid="classpath"/>
<echo message="Classpath = ${debug.classpath}"/>

As for your scripts,

<path id="somePathId">
    <pathelement location="someDir"/>
</path>

I did not test it but according to the documentation path= expects a ; or : separated list of jars. This is not the same as your second example.

Answer 2

The major difference between a <path> and a <fileset> is that in <fileset> you can specify if you want to include or exclude certain type of files (Basically, its a group of files within a path... not necessary all the files), for eg:

<path id="someId">
  <fileset dir="someDir">
     <include name="*.java">
     <include name="*.properties">
  </fileset>
</path>