Ant Copy Task: Failed to copy due to java.io.FileNotFoundException

Question

I'm trying to compile a Flex application in Ant (no problems here, I can do it fine). When I try to publish the contents of the project to a Windows network drive (known as "Z:\" on my system), I get the following LAME exception thrown by Java/Ant:

BUILD FAILED
C:\workspace\bkeller\build.xml:42: Failed to copy C:\workspace\bkeller\web\assets\text\biography.html to Z:\web\bkeller\assets\text\biography.html due to java.io.FileNotFoundException Z:\web\bkeller\assets\text\biography.html (The system cannot find the file specified)

Which kind of sucks. I can't find any way to get rid of this problem and it's pretty crucial to my project that I get this working. I know for sure that I have read/write/execute permissions on the network drive, I can create/edit/delete files on the drive just fine through Windows explorer.

Drive Z is a network mount to virtualbox, allowing me to get access to my host OS, Ubuntu. I've double checked that it has write permissions. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Does it go without saying that the file actually exists? Regardless, while you may have permission, does the process that is actually running the ant task have permission?

Answer 2

Seeing as how Z is a network mount, verifying that it works (e.g. that you can create / write files) through Windows Explorer may not be the same thing as verifying that it works from within Ant:

1. You may have specified the necessary user / password sometime in the past and Explorer remembered it (so it doesn't ask you again). Ant obviously wouldn't.
2. Ant may run as a different user, especially if you spawn another process inside the build.

Can you write a simple test in java and see if it can create a file on your Z: drive? Perhaps that'll provide some insight. You can also run ant with -debug switch and see if it provides a more detailed info. At the very least it would print a stack trace and you can download Ant source and see what's happening.

Answer 3

you certainly thought about it, but have you tried

Z:/web/bkeller/assets/text/biography.html

I always use the / instead of \ even on Windows and can't remember having a problem with the Copy target.

Answer 4

It was a problem in VirtualBox's shared folder system. It's was fixed a few releases ago by 3.0.X.