Copy an Ant argument list into a property

Question

In Ant is there any way to do something like this:

<arguments id="arg-list">
    <arg value="arg1" />
    <arg value="arg2" />
</arguments>

<property name="prop1" refid="arg-list" />

I'm trying to write a macro for psexec and I'm looking for a nice way to pass in the argument list.

I know that you can do something similar with classpaths...

Thanks!

Answer 1

I don't know of an answer to your specific question. The documentation is clear that refid 'Only yields reasonable results for references to PATH like structures or properties.'

Without a bit more information on what you're trying to do, it's hard to comment. At the risk of changing your design, rather than answering your question, I suggest:

1) You can pass the argument list to exec as a line:

<macrodef name="example">
  <element name="args"/>
  <sequential>
    <exec executable="example.exe">
      <arg value="somearg" />
      <arg line="@{args}"/>
    <exec>
  </sequential>
</macrodef>

<example args="somearg arg1 arg2"/>

Which will run example.exe:

example.exe arg1 arg2

2) I pass in arguments to macros that call external apps like this:

<macrodef name="example">
  <element name="params" optional="yes" implicit="yes"/>
  <sequential>
    <exec taskname="eg" executable="example.exe">
      <arg value="somearg" />
      <params />  
    </exec>  
  </sequential>
</macrodef>

<example>
  <arg value="arg1"/>
  <arg value="arg2"/>
</example>

This will run example.exe:

example.exe somearg arg1 arg2

I hope I haven't been teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here.