Antcall: Call nested ant target from another file

Question

I have two ant files:

1) Main file

<include file="otherFile.xml" as="otherFile"/>

<target name="firstTarget">
    <antcall target="otherFile.secondTarget"/>
</target>

2) Utilities file

<target name="secondTarget">
    <antcall target="thirdTarget"/>
</target>

<target name="thirdTarget">
     <echo message="ok"/> 
</target>

When I invoke the firstTarget it says it cannot find the thirdTarget. If I change the secondTarget this way:

<target name="secondTarget">
    <antcall target="otherFile.thirdTarget"/>
</target>

then it works. But then I cannot use secondTarget directly. Because the second file does not knwon the prefix otherFile

Answer 1

You may try:

<ant antfile="otherFile.xml" target="secondTarget"/>

And no need to include the otherFile.

Answer 2

Use the following pattern in any file that will be both directly invoked and included:

<project name="my-project">
  <!-- if this is the top-level build.xml, ${self} == "" -->
  <condition property="self" value="">
    <equals arg1="${ant.project.name}" arg2="my-project" />
  </condition>
  <!-- if this is an included build.xml, ${self} == "my-project." -->
  <property name="self" value="my-project." /><!-- note the trailing dot -->
  ...

Then use the following for the antcall:

<antcall target="${self}target" />