How to exclude a directory from ant fileset, based on directories contents

Question

How can I create an ant fileset which excludes certain directories based on the contents of the directory?

I use ant to create a distribution jar which has each localization in separate directories, some of which are incomplete and should not be released.

I would like to add something to the directory (for example a file named incomplete.flag) so that ant excludes the directory. Then I can delete the file when translation is complete, and include it in the build without modifying build.xml.

Given this directory structure:

proj
+ locale
  + de-DE
  + en-US
  + fr-FR

This fileset excludes all incompelte.flag files, but how can I exclude the entire directories that contain them?

  <fileset dir="${basedir}">
    <include name="locale/"/>
    <exclude name="locale/*/incomplete.flag">
  </fileset>

I can write an ant task if need be, but I'm hoping the fileset can handle this use case.

Answer 1

The following approach works for me:

<exclude name="**/dir_name_to_exclude/**" />

Answer 2

You need to add a '/' after the dir name

<exclude name="WEB-INF/" />

Answer 3

Here's an alternative, instead of adding an incomplete.flag file to every dir you want to exclude, generate a file that contains a listing of all the directories you want to exclude and then use the excludesfile attribute. Something like this:

<fileset dir="${basedir}" excludesfile="FileWithExcludedDirs.properties">
  <include name="locale/"/>
  <exclude name="locale/*/incomplete.flag">
</fileset>

Hope it helps.

Answer 4

There is actually an example for this type of issue in the Ant documentation. It makes use of Selectors (mentioned above) and mappers. See last example in http://ant.apache.org/manual/Types/dirset.html :

<dirset id="dirset" dir="${workingdir}">
   <present targetdir="${workingdir}">
        <mapper type="glob" from="*" to="*/${markerfile}" />
   </present>
</dirset>

Selects all directories somewhere under ${workingdir} which contain a ${markerfile}.

Answer 5

Answer provided by user mgaert works for me. I think it should be marked as the right answer.

It works also with complex selectors like in this example:

<!-- 
    selects only direct subdirectories of ${targetdir} if they have a
    sub-subdirectory named either sub1 or sub2
-->
<dirset dir="${targetdir}" >
    <and>
        <depth max="0"/>
        <or>
            <present targetdir="${targetdir}">
                <globmapper from="*" to="*/sub1" />
            </present>
            <present targetdir="${targetdir}">
                <globmapper from="*" to="*/sub2" />
            </present>
        </or>
    </and>
</dirset>

Thus, having a directory structure like this:

targetdir
├── bar
│   └── sub3
├── baz
│   └── sub1
├── foo
│   └── sub2
├── phoo
│   ├── sub1
│   └── sub2
└── qux
    └── xyzzy
        └── sub1

the above dirset would contain only

baz foo phoo

(bar doesn't match because of sub3 while xyzzy doesn't match because it's not a direct subdirectory of targetdir)

Answer 6

This is possible by using "**" pattern as following.

<exclude name="maindir/**/incomplete.flag"/>

the above 'exclude' will exclude all directories completely which contains incomplete.flag file.

Answer 7

it works for me with a jar target:

<jar jarfile="${server.jar}" basedir="${classes.dir}" excludes="**/client/">
  <manifest>
    <attribute name="Main-Class" value="${mainServer.class}" />
  </manifest>
</jar>

this code include all files in "classes.dir" but exclude the directory "client" from the jar.

Answer 8

I think one way is first to check whether your file exists and if it exists to exclude the folder from copy:

<target name="excludeLocales">

    <property name="de-DE.file" value="${basedir}/locale/de-DE/incompelte.flag"/>
    <available property="de-DE.file.exists" file="${de-DE.file}" />

    <copy todir="C:/temp/">
        <fileset dir="${basedir}/locale">
            <exclude name="de-DE/**" if="${de-DE.file.exists}"/>
            <include name="xy/**"/>
        </fileset>
    </copy>
</target>

This should work also for the other languages.

Answer 9

works for me:

<target name="build2-jar" depends="compile" >
   <jar destfile="./myJjar.jar">
        <fileset dir="./WebContent/WEB-INF/lib" includes="hibernate*.jar,mysql*.jar" />
        <fileset dir="./WebContent/WEB-INF/classes" excludes="**/controlador/*.class,**/form/*.class,**/orm/*.class,**/reporting/*.class,**/org/w3/xmldsig/*.class"/>
   </jar>