I have only been using ant for a couple of weeks. I was unsuccessful in locating this information in the mailing list archives. Some ant tasks (like <property ... >) can exist outside of a target. Most cannot. I was only able to locate one reference to this in the ant 1.5 manual: LoadProperties .... it cannot be specified outside a target.
Is there a definitive list of what *can* be used outside a target? (I thought maybe there was a DTD, but it doesn't exist) The ant 1.5 documentation has an "Overview of Ant Tasks" page with a category called "Property Tasks". Why aren't all of these available outside of a target? After defining some properties, I would like to be able to <echo ... /> to see the property values. However, echo is not supported in this context. What is the rationale for echo not being available outside a target? Based upon the (admittedly limited) testing I have done, I get good results wrapping all of my property tasks inside an "init" target. And, in this context, I can do a lot more stuff (like basename and echo). Why is it not the case that the tasks outside a target are part of a special-before-the-beginning-target which allows usage of all the available tasks? Thanks, Michael -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
