Hello,
I'm planning to build my project from an explicit file list as opposed to using pattern matching for the .java or .jsp files. FileSets seem like the natural place to turn, specifying a pattern for each file I want included. The issue I'm running into is that if the pattern doesn't match (because the file is not there) the task proceeds happily. I need it to fail because the file is absent. It is not feasible to check for the existence of every file with a task.
Is there another option that I've missed? I'm considering adding support to MatchingTask so that it can take a java.util.jar.Manifest file (the list file format I'm using) in addition to a pattern file(s). One could still add includes and excludes only they would match against the manifest list. The MatchingTask "dir" attribute would provide the base directory for the manifest files. I can see how the validation could be a configurable option, if one is generating some of the items in the list.
In some experiments with this feature, processing lists this way seems faster than scanning directories and checking if patterns should be included.
Thanks,
David Dabbs
