Chapter 12. FileUtils
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## Chapter 12. FileUtils

The FileUtils task provides a number of useful file information functions, such as readability, writability, length, etc. Caution: this task does not follow the standard Ant convention of property immutability.

To use this task in your build files, include a task definition like this:

        <taskdef name="fileutil" classname="ise.antelope.tasks.FileUtilTask"/>

Table 12.1. FileUtil Task Attributes

Attribute | Description | Default | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
file | The file or directory in question. | None | No, but does nothing without a file.
property | Where to store the answer. Caution: this task will overwrite any existing property with this name. | None | No

Operations as nested elements:

listfiles Create a list of files and/or directories.

Table 12.2. listfiles

Attribute | Description | Default | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
what | What to list, valid values are "files", "dirs", or "all". | files | No
separator | The separator to use between individual items in the list of files. | , (comma) | No
includepath | If true, include the path with the names in the list. If false, include only the names. | true | No

lastmodified Get the "last modified" date/timestamp of a file.

Table 12.3. lastmodified

Attribute | Description | Default | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
format | A format for the last modified timestamp. Must comply with the standards listed in java.text.SimpleDateFormat. |  | No

These operations have no attributes:

- canread Is the file readable?

- canwrite Is the file writable?

- length Finds the length of the file.

- filecount Find the number of files in the directory.

- isdirectory Is the file a directory?

- isfile Is the file a file?

Only one of the operations can be used at once.

Examples: See the Split for several examples.

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