Re: Delete the contents of a directory but not the directory itself

[Wayne Cannon]

I experienced the same problem and had the same question.
However, I like the suggestions presented here and feel that they are 
more consistent with the behavior of operating systems and file-system 
libraries.  For example, you don't expect "rm -r mydir" or "rmdir mydir" 
to provide a parameter to delete all of the contents and leave the 
directory -- you use "rm -r mydir/*" or "rmdir mydir\*", instead.

I'm relatively new to ant and not yet completely comfortable with its 
wild card notation "**/*", "*/**", etc., which probably led me to look 
initially for an alternative approach and the same question you 
initially raised.

Regards,
Wayne


Daffin, Miles (IT) wrote:
Folks,

Does anyone think that this is a legitimate problem with the way delete
functions (it is not consistent) or am I just missing 'the point'?  

Cordially,

Miles

  
-----Original Message-----
From: Daffin, Miles (IT) 
Sent: Friday 12 January 2007 22:46
To: Ant Users List
Subject: RE: Delete the contents of a directory but not the 
directory itself

And to me. I assumed that when using delete with no dir 
attribute and a nested fileset would not include the base 
dir. After all, if one uses a fileset in the context of a 
copy this is what happens. Take this build as proof:

<project name="test" basedir="." default="all">
  <property name="tmp.dir" value="tmp"/>
  <property name="from.dir" value="${tmp.dir}/fromdir"/>
  <property name="to.dir" value="${tmp.dir}/todir"/>
  <macrodef name="setup">
    <sequential>
      <delete dir="${tmp.dir}"/>
      <mkdir dir="${from.dir}/dir1"/>
      <mkdir dir="${from.dir}/dir2"/>
      <touch file="${from.dir}/file1.txt"/>
      <touch file="${from.dir}/file2.txt"/>
    </sequential>
  </macrodef>
  <target name="test-fileset-copy">
    <setup/>
    <copy todir="${to.dir}" includeemptydirs="true">
      <fileset dir="${from.dir}"/>
    </copy>
    <available file="${to.dir}/fromdir" property="test.failed"/>
    <fail if="test.failed" message="fromdir copied to todir"/>
  </target>
  <target name="test-fileset-delete">
    <setup/>
    <delete includeemptydirs="true">
      <fileset dir="${from.dir}"/>
    </delete>
    <available file="${from.dir}" property="test.success"/>
    <fail unless="test.success" message="fromdir deleted!"/>
  </target>
  <target name="all" depends="test-fileset-copy, 
test-fileset-delete"/> </project>

I think that the way delete behaves here is wrong.

    
-----Original Message-----
From: Dominique Devienne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday 12 January 2007 20:47
To: Ant Users List
Subject: Re: Delete the contents of a directory but not the 
      
directory 
    
itself

      
Explicitly saying includes="**/*" literally means only 
        
any file or 
    
directory below the basedir of the fileset.  Note that we
        
welcome any
      
suggestions regarding where in the manual you might have
        
hoped to find
      
this file scanning information.
        
This thread picked my interest, because I didn't know the answer ;-)

I personally assumed no includes was equivalent to "**/*", which I 
would have guessed to include the base dir, when it doesn't.

I would have tried "*/**", which I would interpret as: all files 
directly in the base dir, and any sub-directories of those. 
      
This also 
    
parallels the fact that * in unix shells does not match ., 
      
the "base 
    
dir".

All that to say that having to use "**/*" instead of "*/**" 
feels counter-intuitive to me ;-) --DD


      
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