Replace Task

Replace

Description

Replace is a directory based task for replacing the occurrence of a given string with another string in selected file.

If you want to replace a text that crosses line boundaries, you must use a nested <replacetoken> element.

The output file is only written if it differs from the existing file. This prevents spurious rebuilds based on unchanged files which have been regenerated by this task.

Parameters

Attribute	Description	Required
file	file for which the token should be replaced.	Exactly one of the two.
dir	The base directory to use when replacing a token in multiple files.	Exactly one of the two.
encoding	The encoding of the files upon which replace operates.	No - defaults to default JVM encoding
token	the token which must be replaced.	Yes, unless a nested `replacetoken` element or the replacefilterfile attribute is used.
value	the new value for the token. When omitted, an empty string ("") is used.	No
summary	Indicates whether a summary of the replace operation should be produced, detailing how many token occurrences and files were processed	No, by default no summary is produced
propertyFile	valid property file from which properties specified using nested `<replacefilter>` elements are drawn.	Yes only if property attribute of `<replacefilter>` is used.
replacefilterfile	valid property file. Each property will be treated as a replacefilter where `token` is the name of the property and `value` is the properties value.	No.
includes	comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be included. All files are included when omitted.	No
includesfile	the name of a file. Each line of this file is taken to be an include pattern	No
excludes	comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be excluded. No files (except default excludes) are excluded when omitted.	No
excludesfile	the name of a file. Each line of this file is taken to be an exclude pattern	No
defaultexcludes	indicates whether default excludes should be used or not ("yes"/"no"). Default excludes are used when omitted.	No

Examples

  <replace file="${src}/index.html" token="@@@" value="wombat"/>

replaces occurrences of the string "@@@" with the string "wombat", in the file ${src}/index.html.

Parameters specified as nested elements

This task forms an implicit FileSet and supports all attributes of <fileset> as well as the nested <include>, <exclude> and <patternset> elements.

If either the text you want to replace or the replacement text cross line boundaries, you can use nested elements to specify them.

Examples

<replace dir="${src}" value="wombat">
  <include name="**/*.html"/>
  <replacetoken><![CDATA[multi line
token]]></replacetoken>
</replace>

replaces occurrences of the string "multi line\ntoken" with the string "wombat", in all HTML files in the directory ${src}.Where \n is the platform specific line separator.

<replace file="${src}/index.html">
  <replacetoken><![CDATA[two line
token]]></replacetoken>
  <replacevalue><![CDATA[two line
token]]></replacevalue>
</replace>

replacefilter

In addition to allowing for multiple replacements, optional nested <replacefilter> elements allow replacement values to be extracted from a property file. The name of this file is specified using the <replace> attribute propertyFile.

Attribute	Description	Required
token	The string to search for.	Yes
value	The replacement string.	Either may be specified, but not both. Both can be omitted, if desired.
property	Name of the property whose value is to serve as the replacement value.

If neither value nor property is used, the value provided using the <replace> attribute value and/or the <replacevalue> element is used. If no value was specified using either of these options, the token is replaced with an empty string.

Examples

<replace 
    file="configure.sh"
    value="defaultvalue"
    propertyFile="source/name.properties">
  <replacefilter 
    token="@token1@"/>
  <replacefilter 
    token="@token2@" 
    value="value2"/>
  <replacefilter 
    token="@token3@" 
    property="property.key"/>
</replace>

In file configure.sh, replace all instances of "@token1@" with "defaultvalue", all instances of "@token2@" with "value2", and all instances of "@token3@" with the value of the property "property.key", as it appears in property file src/name.properties.

Note: It is possible to use either the token/<replacetoken> and value/<replacevalue> attributes/elements, the nested replacefilter elements, or both in the same operation.