Ant - How to exclude Java test files?

Question

I want to copy Java code from a source folder to a target folder and compile it, but need to exclude some testing code. How can I only copy the non-test code? For example, I want to include bb/app/lite2 and exclude bb/app/test1 , bb/app/cg ,...

I know I can use the exclude element, but I don't want to write so many exclude patterns. So can I just use:

<exclude name="bb/app/**"> and then use <include name="bb/app/lite2"> ?

Answer 1

Given the directory structure mentioned in your question, it sounds like all of your non-test code is in the directory bb/app/lite2 . In that case, you could write the <copy> task as follows as long as bb/app/lite2 appears below the specified source directory:

<property name="source.dir" location="${basedir}/src" />
<property name="target.dir" location="${basedir}/target" />

<copy todir="${target.dir}" overwrite="true">
  <fileset dir="${source.dir}" includes="bb/app/lite2/**/*.java" />
</copy>

However, adopting a naming convention for your test files such as <ClassName>Test.java makes it possible to write includes/excludes patterns as follows.

Copy all sources excluding tests

<property name="source.dir" location="${basedir}/src" />
<property name="target.dir" location="${basedir}/target" />

<copy todir="${target.dir}" overwrite="true">
  <fileset dir="${source.dir}" 
      includes="**/*.java" excludes="**/*Test.java" />
</copy>

The <javac> Ant task supports includes and excludes attributes, so rather than copy source files to a new directory, you can select the non-test files directly.

Use <javac> Ant task includes and excludes attributes

<property name="source.dir" location="${basedir}/src" />
<property name="classes.dir" location="${basedir}/build/classes" />

<javac srcdir="${source.dir}" destdir="${classes.dir}"
    includes="**/*.java" excludes="**/*Test.java"
    classpathref="my.classpath" debug="on" deprecation="on" />

As David W. mentioned in his comment, another convention (that may used in conjunction with a file naming convention) is to place test code in a separate directory. For example,

• src/java
• test/src/java

Or following the maven convention:

• src/main/java
• src/test/java

Then compiling your non-test sources is simple since you do not have to specify includes/excludes patterns:

<property name="source.dir" location="${basedir}/src/java" />
<property name="classes.dir" location="${basedir}/build/classes" />

<javac srcdir="${source.dir}" destdir="${classes.dir}"
    classpathref="my.classpath" debug="on" deprecation="on" />

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