Ant (version 1.7.1), or more precisely: Ant's Delete task merrily deletes write-protected files and directories on Windows XP that cannot be deleted using the DEL (without /f) and RD commands from the cmd.exe console.
In cmd.exe, type: more > ant-delete.xml <project name="DeleteTest" basedir="C:/temp/DeleteTest" default="create"> <property name="test.dir" location="abc"/> <property name="test.file" location="abc.txt"/> <target name="create"> <echo message="Moin" file="${test.file}"/> <mkdir dir="${test.dir}"/> </target> <target name="clean"> <delete file="${test.file}"/> <delete dir="${test.dir}"/> </target> </project> ^Z (hit <F6>) rem Create project folder md C:\temp\DeleteTest rem Create file and folder ant -f ant-delete.xml rem Set write-protection attrib +R C:\temp\DeleteTest attrib +R C:\temp\DeleteTest\abc attrib +R C:\temp\DeleteTest\abc.txt rem Try to delete using RD and DEL, which fails rd C:\temp\DeleteTest\abc del C:\temp\DeleteTest\abc.txt rem But Ant unscrupulously cleans up ... ant -f ant-delete.xml clean Now abc and abc.txt are gone, despite being write-protected. I find it difficult to consider this a feature. Is this behaviour intentional? Note that as a consequence, <delete dir="${some.dir}"/> on Windows means to recursively and unconditionally remove ${some.dir}, which even on UNIX would require the user to spell out `rm -rf'. Note that on UNIX, a `chmod a-w' on the project folder prevents Ant from deleting file and folder. Michael --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscr...@ant.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: user-h...@ant.apache.org