Ant Build to Concatenate JavaScript: Build Fail

Question

I have the following ant build file that attempts to concatenate a bunch of JavaScript files, so that I can write modular code, but only deliver one js file. The script is automatically ran by Eclipse every time I save a file in my project, which greatly simplifies my workflow.

My problem

When the build script is executed by Eclipse, everything is fine. If I try to run ant directly from the command line, I get an error saying:

/home/formigone/html5voodoo/build.xml:38: file attribute is null!

Here's my script:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="Build example" default="all" basedir=".">
    // ...
    <property name="SRC_JS_DIR" value="${basedir}/js/hvdoo" />
    <property name="DIST_JS_DIR" value="${basedir}/js/out" />
    <property name="DIST_JS_TMP" value="${basedir}/js/out/tmp" />

    // ...

    <property name="JS_OUT_DEF" value="${DIST_JS_TMP}/__def.js" />
    <property name="JS_OUT_CODE" value="${DIST_JS_TMP}/__code.js" />
    <property name="JS_OUT_LINKED" value="${DIST_JS_TMP}/__out.js" />

    <target name="makeDef">
        <concat destfile="${JS_OUT_DEF}">
            <fileset dir="${SRC_JS_DIR}" 
                includes="**/__def.js" />
        </concat>
    </target>

    <target name="makeCode">
        <concat destfile="${JS_OUT_CODE}">
            <fileset dir="${SRC_JS_DIR}" 
                includes="**/*.js" 
                excludes="**/__*.js" />
        </concat>
    </target>

    <target name="link">
        <concat destfile="${JS_OUT_LINKED}">
            <file name="${JS_OUT_DEF}" />
            <file name="${JS_OUT_CODE}" />
        </concat>
    </target>

    // ...

<target name="quick" depends="makeDef, makeCode, linkToOut"></target>

(I have intentionally left out other parts of the script that aren't in question here)

The error message refers to this line inside the link target:

<concat destfile="${JS_OUT_LINKED}">

What does file attribute is null! mean in this case? If I , I can see that the path to the file I want is correct. So why does it work from Eclipse, but not com CLI?

Thanks!

JasonMArcher · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-26 16:22:14Z

4

Turns out that the problem was that the <concat> block was missing a <filelist> to wrap the individual files with. Now the working script looks like this:

<target name="link">
    <concat destfile="${JS_OUT_LINKED}">
        <filelist dir="${DIST_JS_TMP}">
            <file name="${JS_OUT_DEF}" />
            <file name="${JS_OUT_CODE}" />
        </filelist>
    </concat>
</target>

I'm still not sure how Eclipse got the script to run, but I guess I don't care much since it works both ways.

edited Sep 26, 2014 at 16:22

JasonMArcher

15.1k22 gold badges59 silver badges53 bronze badges

answered Aug 10, 2013 at 16:29

rodrigo-silveira

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