Got no response on the ant-users list. Perhaps this is a more appropriate
place...

-----Original Message-----
From: Whitney Hunter 
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 11:05 AM
To: 'Ant User List'
Subject: Properties and the <ant> tag


Is it just me or does anyone else think that it is bad that when the <ant>
tag is used to execute a sub-build, the properties defined in the enclosing
build file override the properties defined in an enclosed build file?

I have a property that I define in all of my build files: "build_dir". I do
not wish for this to be configurable, but I am forced to either make of of
these property names unique or pass in the value from an embedded <property>
tag within the <ant> tag. This does not make sense to me.

The semantics that I expected (and I think is best) is for the properties of
enclosing file to be available in the enclosed unless they are defined in
the enclosed file. If a property is redefined in an enclosed file, it should
override the enclosing file. If you want to override an enclosed property
from the enclosing file, then use the embedded property syntax for <ant>.
This is way that environment variables work in various unix shells.

Comments?

Whitney