Try using a forward slash instead of a backslash in the directory pathname. That is: "${basedir}/war".
Forward slashes work almost every place backslashes do for filename paths in
Java (and
Ant is a Java program). However they carry 2 advantages:
1. They work when running the ant builds on non-Windows systems like Solaris.
2. Forward slashes don't have a "magic" meaning. Backslashes are used in Java for escape sequences.
In the case of Ant file and directory operations, I'm pretty sure that item #2 won't bite you, but why take chances? Look for a "${basedir}war" directory that you can't account for. If you find one, that was the problem.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.