Filesets are groups of files. These files can be found in a directory tree starting in a base directory and are matched by patterns taken from a number of patterns. Filesets can appear inside tasks that support this feature or at the project level, i.e., as children of <project>.

Patterns

As described earlier, patterns are used for the inclusion and exclusion. These patterns look very much like the patterns used in DOS and UNIX:

'*' matches zero or more characters

For example:

*.cs matches .cs, x.cs and FooBar.cs, but not FooBar.xml (does not end with .cs).
'?' matches one character

For example:

?.cs matches x.cs, A.cs, but not .cs or xyz.cs (both don't have one character before .cs).

Combinations of *'s and ?'s are allowed.

Matching is done per-directory. This means that first the first directory in the pattern is matched against the first directory in the path to match. Then the second directory is matched, and so on. For example, when we have the pattern /?abc/*/*.cs and the path /xabc/foobar/test.cs, the first ?abc is matched with xabc, then * is matched with foobar, and finally *.cs is matched with test.cs. They all match, so the path matches the pattern.

To make things a bit more flexible, we added one extra feature, which makes it possible to match multiple directory levels. This can be used to match a complete directory tree, or a file anywhere in the directory tree. To do this, ** must be used as the name of a directory. When ** is used as the name of a directory in the pattern, it matches zero or more directories. For example: /test/** matches all files/directories under /test/, such as /test/x.cs, or /test/foo/bar/xyz.html, but not /xyz.xml.

There is one "shorthand" - if a pattern ends with / or \, then ** is appended. For example, mypackage/test/ is interpreted as if it were mypackage/test/**.

Case-Sensitivity

By default, pattern matching is case-sensitive on Unix and case-insensitive on other platforms. The NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.CaseSensitive parameter can be used to override this.

Default Excludes

There are a set of definitions that are excluded by default from all tasks that use filesets. They are:

**/.svn
**/.svn/**
**/_svn
**/_svn/**
**/.git
**/.git/**
**/.git* (eg. .gitignore)
**/.hg
**/.hg/**
**/.hg* (eg. .hgignore)
**/SCCS
**/SCCS/**
**/vssver.scc
**/vssver2.scc
**/_vti_cnf/**
**/*~
**/#*#
**/.#*
**/%*%
**/CVS
**/CVS/**
**/.cvsignore
**/._*
**/.bzr
**/.bzr/**
**/.bzr* (eg. .bzrignore)
**/.DS_Store

If you do not want these default excludes applied, you may disable them by setting NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.DefaultExcludes to false.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
basedir	directory	The base of the directory of this fileset. The default is the project base directory.	False
casesensitive	bool	Indicates whether include and exclude patterns must be treated in a case-sensitive way. The default is `true` on Unix; otherwise, `false`.	False
defaultexcludes	bool	Indicates whether default excludes should be used or not. The default is `true`.	False
failonempty	bool	When set to `true`, causes the fileset element to throw a `NAnt.Core.ValidationException` when no files match the includes and excludes criteria. The default is `false`.	False
id	string	The ID used to be referenced later.	False
refid	string	The ID to use as the reference.	False

Nested elements

<exclude>

The items to exclude from the fileset.

Automatically validates attributes in the element based on attributes applied to members in derived classes.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
name	string	The pattern or file name to exclude.	True
if	bool	If `true` then the pattern will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.Exclude.IfDefined`. If `false` then the pattern will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False

<exclude>

<excludesfile>

The files from which a list of patterns or files to exclude should be obtained.

Automatically validates attributes in the element based on attributes applied to members in derived classes.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
name	file	The name of a file; each line of this file is taken to be a pattern.	True
if	bool	If `true` then the patterns will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.ExcludesFile.IfDefined`. If `false` then the patterns will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False

<excludesfile>

<include>

The items to include in the fileset.

Automatically validates attributes in the element based on attributes applied to members in derived classes.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
name	string	The pattern or file name to include.	True
asis	bool	If `true` then the file name will be added to the `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet` without pattern matching or checking if the file exists. The default is `false`.	False
frompath	bool	If `true` then the file will be searched for on the path. The default is `false`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the pattern will be included; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.Include.IfDefined`. If `false` then the pattern will be included; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the pattern will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
name	string	The pattern or file name to exclude.	True
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.Exclude.IfDefined`. If `false` then the pattern will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False

<include>

<includesfile>

The files from which a list of patterns or files to include should be obtained.

Automatically validates attributes in the element based on attributes applied to members in derived classes.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
asis	bool	If `true` then the patterns in the include file will be added to the `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet` without pattern matching or checking if the file exists. The default is `false`.	False
frompath	bool	If `true` then the patterns in the include file will be searched for on the path. The default is `false`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the patterns will be included; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.IncludesFile.IfDefined`. If `false` then the patterns will be included; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the patterns will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
name	file	The name of a file; each line of this file is taken to be a pattern.	True
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.ExcludesFile.IfDefined`. If `false` then the patterns will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False

<includesfile>

<excludes>

The items to exclude from the fileset.

Obsolete. Use element instead.

Automatically validates attributes in the element based on attributes applied to members in derived classes.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
name	string	The pattern or file name to exclude.	True
if	bool	If `true` then the pattern will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.Exclude.IfDefined`. If `false` then the pattern will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False

<excludes>

<includes>

The items to include in the fileset.

Obsolete. Use element instead.

Automatically validates attributes in the element based on attributes applied to members in derived classes.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
name	string	The pattern or file name to include.	True
asis	bool	If `true` then the file name will be added to the `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet` without pattern matching or checking if the file exists. The default is `false`.	False
frompath	bool	If `true` then the file will be searched for on the path. The default is `false`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the pattern will be included; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.Include.IfDefined`. If `false` then the pattern will be included; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the pattern will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
name	string	The pattern or file name to exclude.	True
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.Exclude.IfDefined`. If `false` then the pattern will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False

<includes>

<includesList>

The files from which a list of patterns or files to include should be obtained.

Obsolete. Use instead.

Automatically validates attributes in the element based on attributes applied to members in derived classes.

Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
asis	bool	If `true` then the patterns in the include file will be added to the `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet` without pattern matching or checking if the file exists. The default is `false`.	False
frompath	bool	If `true` then the patterns in the include file will be searched for on the path. The default is `false`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the patterns will be included; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.IncludesFile.IfDefined`. If `false` then the patterns will be included; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False
if	bool	If `true` then the patterns will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `true`.	False
name	file	The name of a file; each line of this file is taken to be a pattern.	True
unless	bool	Opposite of `NAnt.Core.Types.FileSet.ExcludesFile.IfDefined`. If `false` then the patterns will be excluded; otherwise, skipped. The default is `false`.	False

<includesList>

Examples

Match Matches all files in CVS directories that can be located anywhere in the directory tree. Matches: CVS/Repository org/apache/CVS/Entries org/apache/jakarta/tools/ant/CVS/Entries But not: org/apache/CVS/foo/bar/Entries (foo/bar/ part does not match) Matches all files in the org/apache/jakarta directory tree. Matches: org/apache/jakarta/tools/ant/docs/index.html org/apache/jakarta/test.xml But not: org/apache/xyz.java (jakarta/ part is missing) Matches all files in CVS directories that are located anywhere in the directory tree under org/apache. Matches: org/apache/CVS/Entries org/apache/jakarta/tools/ant/CVS/Entries But not: org/apache/CVS/foo/bar/Entries (foo/bar/ part does not match) Matches all files that have a test element in their path, including test as a filename.

Pattern
`*/CVS/`
`org/apache/jakarta/**`
`org/apache/*/CVS/`
`/test/`

Requirements

Assembly: NAnt.Core.dll
Namespace: NAnt.Core.Types

<fileset>

Patterns

Case-Sensitivity

Default Excludes

Parameters

Nested elements

<exclude>

Parameters

<exclude>

<excludesfile>

Parameters

<excludesfile>

<include>

Parameters

<include>

<includesfile>

Parameters

<includesfile>

<excludes>

Parameters

<excludes>

<includes>

Parameters

<includes>

<includesList>

Parameters

<includesList>

Examples

See Also

Requirements