# In-depth documentation for more advanced Gradle-based Ant Targets? **URL:** \ **Category:** Help/Discuss\ **Created:** [August 30, 2017, 6:08am UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/in-depth-documentation-for-more-advanced-gradle-based-ant-targets/23928 "2017-08-30T06:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ciscorucinski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/67e7ee/32.png) [@ciscorucinski](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/ciscorucinski)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 6:08am UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/in-depth-documentation-for-more-advanced-gradle-based-ant-targets/23928/1 "2017-08-30T06:08:27Z")
##Summary Gradle has some documentation for Ant, but it doesn’t seem to tell us how we can map Ant targets to there Gradle equivalent. It does show how to map a small subset of Ant targets, but it doesn’t show how to do advanced usages of that subset. So am I missing this documentation, or does it not exist. I have the code below of what I want to do. I think I need a chained mapper, but I don’t know how the DSL should look like. ## Background I was having a slight inconvenience with my current Gradle Task. Either I can ignore the problem (just for now) or I can have 2 `ant` calls which will basically double the time to execute my Gradle task. I have seen that using pure Ant, I can do this with just one Ant `copy` XML tag. I want to replicate that to reduce my execution time. **However, I cannot find the documentation to understand how to accurately map `Ant targets` to `Gradle Ant tasks`.** So where can I find this documentation? I think I need a `Chained Mapper` I have checked these documentation pages… 1. [https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/ant.html](https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/ant.html), 2. [https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/tutorial\_using\_tasks.html#sec:using\_ant\_tasks\_tutorial](https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/tutorial_using_tasks.html#sec:using_ant_tasks_tutorial), 3. [https://docs.gradle.org/current/javadoc/org/gradle/api/AntBuilder.html](https://docs.gradle.org/current/javadoc/org/gradle/api/AntBuilder.html) ## Code ``` doLast { println("Syncing files...\n\tfrom\t'$intelliJColorSchemeDir' \n\tto\t\t'$sourceDir'") println("Renaming file extension") // Sync files from IntelliJ's color scheme and rename extension ant.copy(todir: sourceDir) { fileset(dir: intelliJColorSchemeDir) mapper(type: "glob", from: "*.icls", to: "*.xml") // Cannot do this as there will then be 2 mappers // mapper(type: "glob", from: "ChroMATERIAL IntelliJ IDEA*.*", to: "ChroMATERIAL*.*") // TODO wildcards don't work in this case. Why? Should I just not use wildcards? Would kind of prefer wildcards though } // ALTERNATIVE 2nd ant target - would like to have this be in the above ant `copy` target // Rename one specific file ant.move(todir: sourceDir) { fileset(dir: sourceDir) mapper(type: "glob", from: "ChroMATERIAL IntelliJ IDEA.xml", to: "ChroMATERIAL.xml") } println("Syncing task completely finished!") } ``` ---
**Author:** ![Schalk\_Cronje](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gradle/user_avatar/discuss.gradle.org/schalk_cronje/32/6511_2.png) [@Schalk\_Cronje](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Schalk_Cronje)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/in-depth-documentation-for-more-advanced-gradle-based-ant-targets/23928/2 "2017-08-31T15:53:29Z")
What is the motivation for using Ant for this case? I believe you can do all of that in a single `Copy` task or using one `project.copy` closure. Example with just `project.copy`. ```groovy copy { into sourceDir from intelliJColorSchemeDir, { include '**' rename '(.+)\.icls', '$1.xml' rename 'ChroMATERIAL IntelliJ IDEA.xml','ChroMATERIAL.xml' } } ``` ---
**Author:** ![ciscorucinski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/67e7ee/32.png) [@ciscorucinski](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/ciscorucinski)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 7:07am UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/in-depth-documentation-for-more-advanced-gradle-based-ant-targets/23928/3 "2017-09-07T07:07:18Z")
> [@Schalk\_Cronje](#): > > ``` > rename '(.+)\\.icls', '$1.xml' > > ``` While you typed in the code correctly, the website changes the double `\\` into a single `\`. Just for future reference ^^. Also, that code does what I want, but the original question remains unanswered. I still want to know where I can find the in-depth Ant material. I am asking because a previous task I wrote could only be done with Ant, and I had no idea that it could not easily be done with Gradle; however, it was very easy with Ant. A Gradle developer suggested I use `ant.move`. I didn’t know I could do that, I don’t know when I can do that in the future. So my question is where can I found out how to do Ant tasks in-depth. Right now I have to search Ant documentation (which I never used before), see what is available to use, then do an advanced Github search of Gradle files that contain that task name, and see how it is used. I cannot go to any documentation in Gradle that I have found. By the way, the Ant code for my original question is… ``` doLast { ant.copy(todir: sourceDir) { ant.fileset(dir: intelliJColorSchemeDir) ant.firstmatchmapper { ant.globmapper(from: "ChroMATERIAL IntelliJ IDEA.icls", to: "ChroMATERIAL.xml") ant.globmapper(from: "*.icls", to: "*.xml") } } } ``` ---
**Author:** ![Schalk\_Cronje](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gradle/user_avatar/discuss.gradle.org/schalk_cronje/32/6511_2.png) [@Schalk\_Cronje](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Schalk_Cronje)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 10:06am UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/in-depth-documentation-for-more-advanced-gradle-based-ant-targets/23928/4 "2017-09-14T10:06:03Z")
I share your pain. Try to work back from Ant docs to something that is usable in Gradle can be a bumpy road. It is not helped by the fact that the Ant are incomprehensible in places.