How to replace string in a file using NANT?

Question

I am trying to replace the occurance of a string in a wxs file using Nant.

I have only found the following example, which uses <replaceString>, but it seems like it can only be used within the copied files. Are there any other way of replacing a string, without actually copying the files over?

<property name="NOW" value="${datetime::now()}" />
<copy todir="out">
    <fileset basedir="in">
        <include name="**/*" />
    </fileset>
    <filterchain>
        <replacetokens>
            <token key="NOW" value="${TODAY}" />
        </replacetokens>
        <tabstospaces />
    </filterchain>
</copy>

Answer 1

Here's the code:

<loadfile file="token.txt" property="token-file">
    <filterchain>
        <replacetokens>
            <token key="NOW" value="${datetime::now()}" />
        </replacetokens>
    </filterchain>
</loadfile>

The official NAnt docs for <loadfile> element contain the exact sample you need. See the bottom of the page.

Answer 2

Here's how I did it.

<loadfile file="${file}" property="file.content">
    <filterchain>
        <replacestring from="StringToMatch" to="StringToReplace" ignorecase="true" />
    </filterchain>
</loadfile>
<echo file="${file}">${file.content}</echo>

Answer 3

So you are trying to modify a .wxs file which is XML, right?

In this particular case you might use <xmlpoke> if you are able to determine the position of the strings to replace via XPath.