Hi,
I am trying to use Ant to execute all m4 scripts in a directory to automated
the creation of SQL scripts (triggers). The m4 scripts work just fine.
However, for some *unfathomable* reason, GNU m4 does *not* have any way
*whatsoever* (i.e., no syntax for it, no command line options for it) to
write its output anywhere other than standard output (stdout). Ugh. So,
the following does not work:
<target name="create_triggers">
<apply executable="m4" dir="../triggers" dest="../triggers"
failonerror="true">
<fileset dir="../triggers" includes="*.m4"/>
<mapper type="glob" from="*.m4" to="*.sql"/>
</apply>
</target>
because the output gets written to stdout. I've tried the following as well:
<target name="create_triggers">
<apply executable="m4" dir="../triggers" dest="../triggers"
failonerror="true">
<srcfile/>
<arg line=" > "/>
<targetfile/>
<fileset dir="../triggers" includes="*.m4"/>
<mapper type="glob" from="*.m4" to="*.sql"/>
</apply>
</target>
in an attempt to get Ant to redirect the output to the targetfile, but this
doesn't work either in that the ">" character just gets treated as a
filename by m4, as does the targetfile:
[apply] /usr/bin/m4: >: No such file or directory
[apply] /usr/bin/m4: Users_A_Audit_U01.sql: No such file or directory
Ant is probably ensuring that the commands it executes do not use
redirection (as it should, IMHO). However, this has me in bit of a quandary.
I could use the "output" parameter of the "apply" command, but this would
then mean I would need a separate "apply" for each file I want to process
(which pretty much defeats the purpose of using "apply").
What alternatives do I have? I am going to perhaps have to write a Task
subclass to get the behavior I need? Is there some other, easier way to
deal with this issue?
Any and all help greatly appreciated! My apologies in advance for troubling
you all with this, in that I realize that the problem is really with m4's
idiotic insistence on writing to stdout rather than anything wrong with Ant.
Thanks!
Doug Morse
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
