Apache Ant v1.8.1: Error resolving loaded properties that include references to common properties

Question

This worked in Ant 1.7.1 but no longer works in Ant 1.8.1. Is this a bug or is there a new and/or better way to achieve what I'm trying to do?

The Project consists of 2 components, each component has it's own build file and properties file, there is also a top level build file and properties file for common ant targets and properties. It is laid out like so:

• /project/
  • component-a/
    • build.properties
    • build.xml
  • component-b/
    • build.properties
    • build.xml
  • build.properties
  • build.xml

/project/build.properties:

common.root.dir=/project

/project/build.xml:

<project name="common">
    <dirname file="${ant.file.common}" property="common.base.dir"/>
    <loadproperties srcfile="${common.base.dir}/build.properties"/>
</project>

/project/component-b/build.properties:

dist.dir=${common.root.dir}/component-b/dist

/project/component-b/build.xml:

<project name="component-b">
    <dirname property="component.b.base.dir" file="${ant.file.component-b}"/>    
    <import file="${component.b.base.dir}/../build.xml"/>
    <loadproperties srcfile="${component.b.base.dir}/build.properties"/>
</project>

/project/component-a/build.properties:

dist.dir=${common.root.dir}/component-a/dist

/project/component-a/build.xml:

<project name="component-a">
    <dirname property="component.a.base.dir" file="${ant.file.component-a}"/>
    <property name="project.root.dir" location="${component.a.base.dir}/.."/>

    <import file="${project.root.dir}/build.xml"/>
    <loadproperties srcfile="${component.a.base.dir}/build.properties"/>
    <loadproperties srcfile="${project.root.dir}/component-b/build.properties" prefix="component.b"/>

    <target name="print.unresolved.property">       
        <echo>${component.b.dist.dir}</echo>
    </target>
</project>

To see the error run: ant -f /project/component-a/build.xml print.unresolved.property

If using Ant 1.8.1 the output will be:

print.unresolved.property:  
    [echo] ${common.root.dir}/component-b/dist

Why is common.root.dir not resolving to /project?

Answer 1

For others encountering this problem, I've uncovered that it is indeed a bug; while I haven't found the relevant bug report, I built ant using the latest source code from their repository and the property now resolves correctly. Here's to hoping that v1.8.2 is released sooner rather than later.