Ant — copying files and subdirectories from only one subdirectory on a tree

Question

I\'d like to copy files and subdirectories using Ant from a single subdirectory without copying the rest of the directory structure and contents. For example, I\'d like to

Answer 1

<copy todir="/some/path/foobar" verbose="true">
  <fileset dir="/some/path/temp/dir2" includes="**"/>
</copy>

just use a fileset starting from dir2 including all dirs and files below..
verbose = true to echo all the files copied
May be you need to use overwrite = true also if the dir that is specified by todir
attribute already exists, otherwise existing files won't be overwritten by copy task

Answer 2

It's not that difficult...

<copy todir="${copy.dir}">
     <fileset dir="temp">
         <include name="**/dir3/**"/>
     </fileset>
</copy>

When you use the include directive, it will only include the files that match the pattern you give it. In this case, I'm copying only those files that have /dir3/ somewhere in their full path name. This includes sub-directories under dir3 and all files under dir3.

You can use the exclude directive to override the include directives:

<copy todir="${copy.dir}">
     <fileset dir="temp">
         <include name="**/dir3/**"/>
         <exclude name="**/dir3/*"/>
     </fileset>
</copy>

This will copy all sub-directories and files in those sub directories, but not the files under dir3 itself. The * matches all files in the directory while ** matches the all the files in the entire directory tree.

Notice this will create a directory temp/dir2/dir3. If I want temp/dir3, I have to set my fileset to the parent directory of dir3:

<copy todir="${copy.dir}">
     <fileset dir="temp/dir2">
         <include name="dir3/**"/>
     </fileset>
</copy>

Doing this:

<copy todir="${copy.dir}">
     <fileset dir="temp/dir2/dir3"/>
</copy>

Will create a directory temp with all the files directly under dir3 directly under temp. There will also be a temp/dir4 and temp/dir5 directory containing all the files (and directory trees) under those directories.