Writes a message to the build log or a specified file.

The message can be specified using the NAnt.Core.Tasks.EchoTask.Message attribute or as inline content. If neither is included - or the message contains only whitespace - then an empty message will be emitted in the output.

Macros in the message will be expanded.

When writing to a file, the NAnt.Core.Tasks.EchoTask.MessageLevel attribute is ignored.

Since NAnt 0.86, a newline will no longer be implicitly added when writing a message to a file.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
append	bool	Determines whether the `NAnt.Core.Tasks.EchoTask` should append to the file, or overwrite it. By default, the file will be overwritten.	False
encoding		The encoding to use when writing message to a file. The default is UTF-8 encoding without a Byte Order Mark (BOM).	False
file	file	The file to write the message to.	False
message	string	The message to output.	False
level		The logging level with which the message should be output. The default is `NAnt.Core.Level.Info`.	False
failonerror	bool	Determines if task failure stops the build, or is just reported. The default is `true`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the task will be executed; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Task.IfDefined`. If `false` then the task will be executed; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False
verbose	bool	Determines whether the task should report detailed build log messages. The default is `false`.	False

Examples

Writes a message with level NAnt.Core.Level.Debug to the build log.

<echo message="Hello, World!" level="Debug" />

Writes a two-line message to the build log using inline content.

    <echo>First line
Second line</echo>

Writes a two-line message to the build log using the NAnt.Core.Tasks.EchoTask.Message attribute.

    <echo message='First line
Second line</echo>

Writes a message with expanded macro to the build log.

<echo message="Base build directory = ${nant.project.basedir}" />

Functionally equivalent to the previous example.

<echo>Base build directory = ${nant.project.basedir}</echo>

Writes the previous message to a file in the project directory, overwriting the file if it exists.

<echo file="buildmessage.txt">Base build directory = ${nant.project.basedir}</echo>

Requirements

Assembly: NAnt.Core.dll
Namespace: NAnt.Core.Tasks