question about filter in ANT1.5

[Jason Wang]

It seems to me the following sample code doesn't work. I mean original token string won't be replaced.
<filter token="year" value="2000"/>
<copy todir="${dest.dir}" filtering="true">
<fileset dir="${src.dir}"/>
</copy>
using properties file doesn't work either.
<filter filtersfile="deploy_env.properties"/>
Any comments?
Thanks a lot.
Jason

[Greg Ostravich]

I got mine to work but I did do something a little different than you did.
In mine I had an "includes" too.
Is your token quoted with '@' in your file too?
e.g. in my source file the DEBUG token is defined as @DEBUG@.
Here's my example:

<!-- Copy files to build directory -->
<target name="copyfiles" depends="prepare">
  <filter token="DEBUG" value="false"/>
  <!-- Copy from src dir. to build directory -->
  <copy todir="${build.src}" filtering="true">
    <fileset dir="${src.dir}"  includes="**/*.java,**/*.mf"/>
  </copy>
</target>

Hope this helped!
Greg

[Jason Wang]

Thanks a lot. Your post helps. Now my build script works fine.
Jason

[Erik Hatcher]

I would like to encourage folks to not use Ant's <filter> task, but rather nest a filterset inside the <copy> task. The <filter> task sets up a global filter which cannot be cleared and will be used on all operations where filtering is enabled - and doing it local to each task that needs it provides cleaner control.

[Greg Ostravich]

Thanks for the feedback.
Based on your advice I've modified my build:

<!-- Copy files to build directory -->
<target name="copyfiles" depends="prepare">
  <!-- Copy from src directory to build directory -->
  <copy todir="${build.src}" filtering="true">
    <fileset dir="${src.dir}" includes="**/*.java,**/*.mf"/>
    <filterset>
      <filter token="DEBUG" value="true"/>
    </filterset>
  </copy>
</target>

Thanks again for the feedback -