Try "java org.apache.tools.ant.Main
-Dservlet.jar=/real/path/to/servlet.jar". In other words, specify the -D
switch as an argument to Ant, not to the JVM. This has worked for me.
"Craig R. McClanahan" wrote:
> There is something about the way that property setting is working that I
> don't understand.
>
> I was led to believe by the documentation, and by looking at the source
> code, that properties set on the command line that invokes Ant (such as
> java -Dmy.property=my.value org.apache.tools.ant.Main) would override
> any value set for my.property in the build.xml file. The behavior I'm
> observing (with the current Ant source code from CVS) is exactly the
> opposite -- property values from the build.xml file seem to override
> system properties.
>
> The case in point is I want to use a property named "servlet.jar" to
> provide a pathname to the servlet API classes you want to compile some
> stuff with, but provide a default value in the build.xml in case the
> user doesn't provide the corresponding system property. My build.xml
> (in part) looks like this:
>
> <project name="myproject" default="compile" basedir=".">
>
> <target name="init">
> <property name="servlet.jar"
> value="/default/path/to/servlet.jar"/>
> </target>
>
> <target name="compile" depends="init">
> <echo message="The property is set to ${servlet.jar}"/>
> ... compile commands ...
> </target>
>
> </project>
>
> Now, even if I invoke Ant like this:
>
> java -Dservlet.jar=/real/path/to/servlet.jar
> org.apache.tools.ant.Main
>
> the value that is echoed is always "/default/path/to/servlet.jar", which
> is not what I wanted.
>
> Any suggestions or guidance on what I'm not understanding?
>
> Craig McClanahan
