Ant User Manual

Attrib

Since Ant 1.6.

Description

Changes the attributes of a file or all files inside specified directories. Right now it has effect only under Windows. Each of the 4 possible permissions has its own attribute, matching the arguments for the attrib command.

FileSets, DirSets or FileLists can be specified using nested <fileset>, <dirset> and <filelist> elements.

By default this task will use a single invocation of the underlying attrib command. If you are working on a large number of files this may result in a command line that is too long for your operating system. If you encounter such problems, you should set the maxparallel attribute of this task to a non-zero value. The number to use highly depends on the length of your file names (the depth of your directory tree), so you'll have to experiment a little.

Parameters

Attribute	Description	Required
file	the file or directory of which the permissions must be changed.	Yes or nested `<fileset/list>` elements.
readonly	the readonly permission.	at least one of the four.
archive	the archive permission.
system	the system permission.
hidden	the hidden permission.
type	One of file, dir or both. If set to file, only the permissions of plain files are going to be changed. If set to dir, only the directories are considered. Note: The type attribute does not apply to nested dirsets - dirsets always implicitly assume type to be dir.	No, default is file
verbose	Whether to print a summary after execution or not. Defaults to `false`.	No

Examples

<attrib file="${dist}/run.bat" readonly="true" hidden="true"/>

makes the "run.bat" file read-only and hidden.

<attrib readonly="false">
  <fileset dir="${meta.inf}" includes="**/*.xml"/>
<attrib>

makes all ".xml" files below ${meta.inf} readable.

<attrib readonly="true" archive="true">
  <fileset dir="shared/sources1">
    <exclude name="**/trial/**"/>
  </fileset>
  <fileset refid="other.shared.sources"/>
</attrib>

makes all files below shared/sources1 (except those below any directory named trial) read-only and archived. In addition all files belonging to a FileSet with id other.shared.sources get the same attributes.