noob to ant need help please

[Tai Lo]

if i want to step out of the base directory in XML, how would I do that.
ie. ( basedir = /users/local/src/tests/files but I want /users/local/src/tests/)

I've tried <sysproperty key="thisVal" value="${basedir}/../"/> but that seems to fail. Any ideas would be great. thanks.

[Martijn Verburg]

Hi Tai and welcome to Javaranch!

Have you tried ../../{${basedir}

[Tai Lo]

thanks martijn. This is what i get with your recommendation


<property name = "test" value="../../{${basedir}"/>
<echo message = "this is test #${mb.test}"/>

:this is test #../../{/Users/taiLo/cvs/check

In this case I want /Users/TaiLo/cvs ~ does echoing the variable return the actual value of that variable?

Thanks for your help

[Martijn Verburg]

Oh sorry! Completely mis-read your original question, let me look up some ANT docs and see if I can find something for you.

[Peter Johnson]

basedir = /users/local/src/tests/files but I want /users/local/src/tests/

Assuming that build.xml is in /users/local/src/tests/files, you should be able to do:

<property name = "tests.dir" value=".." />