WAR Task

War

Description

An extension of the Jar task with special treatment for files that should end up in the WEB-INF/lib, WEB-INF/classes or WEB-INF directories of the Web Application Archive.

(The War task is a shortcut for specifying the particular layout of a WAR file. The same thing can be accomplished by using the prefix and fullpath attributes of zipfilesets in a Zip or Jar task.)

The extended zipfileset element from the zip task (with attributes prefix, fullpath, and src) is available in the War task. The task is also resource-enabled and will add nested resources and resource collections to the archive.

Before Servlet API 2.5/Java EE 5, a WEB-INF/web.xml file was mandatory in a WAR file, so this task failed if the webxml attribute was missing. As the web.xml file is now optional, the webxml attribute may now be made optional. However, as most real web applications do need a web.xml file, it is not optional by default. The task will fail if the file is not included, unless the needxmlfile attribute is set to false. The task will warn if more than one web.xml file is added to the JAR through the filesets.

Please note that the Zip format allows multiple files of the same fully-qualified name to exist within a single archive. This has been documented as causing various problems for unsuspecting users. If you wish to avoid this behavior you must set the duplicate attribute to a value other than its default, "add".

Parameters

Attribute Description Required

destfile the WAR file to create. Exactly one of the two.

warfile Deprecated name of the file to create -use destfile instead.

webxml The servlet configuration descriptor to use (WEB-INF/web.xml). Yes, unless needxmlfile is true, the file is pulled in via a nested fileset, or an existing WAR file is being updated.

needxmlfile Flag to indicate whether or not the web.xml file is needed. It should be set to false when generating servlet 2.5+ WAR files without a web.xml file. Since Apache Ant 1.7 No -default "true"

basedir the directory from which to jar the files. No

compress Not only store data but also compress them, defaults to true. Unless you set the keepcompression attribute to false, this will apply to the entire archive, not only the files you've added while updating. No

keepcompression For entries coming from existing archives (like nested zipfilesets or while updating the archive), keep the compression as it has been originally instead of using the compress attribute. Defaults false. Since Ant 1.6 No

encoding The character encoding to use for filenames inside the archive. Defaults to UTF8. It is not recommended to change this value as the created archive will most likely be unreadable for Java otherwise.
See also the discussion in the zip task page No

filesonly Store only file entries, defaults to false No

includes comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be included. All files are included when omitted. No

includesfile the name of a file. Each line of this file is taken to be an include pattern No

excludes comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be excluded. No files (except default excludes) are excluded when omitted. No

excludesfile the name of a file. Each line of this file is taken to be an exclude pattern No

defaultexcludes indicates whether default excludes should be used or not ("yes"/"no"). Default excludes are used when omitted. No

manifest the manifest file to use. No

filesetmanifest behavior when a Manifest is found in a zipfileset or zipgroupfileset file is found. Valid values are "skip", "merge", and "mergewithoutmain". "merge" will merge all of the manifests together, and merge this into any other specified manifests. "mergewithoutmain" merges everything but the Main section of the manifests. Default value is "skip". No

whenmanifestonly behavior when no files match. Valid values are "fail", "skip", and "create". Default is "create". No

update indicates whether to update or overwrite the destination file if it already exists. Default is "false". No

duplicate behavior when a duplicate file is found. Valid values are "add", "preserve", and "fail". The default value is "add". No

roundup Whether the file modification times will be rounded up to the next even number of seconds.
Zip archives store file modification times with a granularity of two seconds, so the times will either be rounded up or down. If you round down, the archive will always seem out-of-date when you rerun the task, so the default is to round up. Rounding up may lead to a different type of problems like JSPs inside a web archive that seem to be slightly more recent than precompiled pages, rendering precompilation useless.
Defaults to true. Since Ant 1.6.2 No

level Non-default level at which file compression should be performed. Valid values range from 0 (no compression/fastest) to 9 (maximum compression/slowest). Since Ant 1.7 No

preserve0permissions when updating an archive or adding entries from a different archive Ant will assume that a Unix permissions value of 0 (nobody is allowed to do anything to the file/directory) means that the permissions haven't been stored at all rather than real permissions and will instead apply its own default values.
Set this attribute to true if you really want to preserve the original permission field.since Ant 1.8.0 No, default is false

useLanguageEncodingFlag Whether to set the language encoding flag if the encoding is UTF-8. This setting doesn't have any effect if the encoding is not UTF-8. Since Ant 1.8.0.
See also the discussion in the zip task page No, default is true

createUnicodeExtraFields Whether to create unicode extra fields to store the file names a second time inside the entry's metadata.
Possible values are "never", "always" and "not-encodeable" which will only add Unicode extra fields if the file name cannot be encoded using the specified encoding. Since Ant 1.8.0.
See also the discussion in the zip task page No, default is "never"

fallbacktoUTF8 Whether to use UTF-8 and the language encoding flag instead of the specified encoding if a file name cannot be encoded using the specified encoding. Since Ant 1.8.0.
See also the discussion in the zip task page No, default is false

mergeClassPathAttributes Whether to merge the Class-Path attributes found in different manifests (if merging manifests). If false, only the attribute of the last merged manifest will be preserved. Since Ant 1.8.0.
unless you also set flattenAttributes to true this may result in manifests containing multiple Class-Path attributes which violates the manifest specification. No, default is false

flattenAttributes Whether to merge attributes occurring more than once in a section (this can only happen for the Class-Path attribute) into a single attribute. Since Ant 1.8.0. No, default is false

zip64Mode When to use Zip64 extensions for entries. The possible values are "never", "always" and "as-needed". Since Ant 1.9.1.
See also the discussion in the zip task page No, default is "never"

Nested elements

lib

The nested lib element specifies a FileSet. All files included in this fileset will end up in the WEB-INF/lib directory of the war file.

classes

The nested classes element specifies a FileSet. All files included in this fileset will end up in the WEB-INF/classes directory of the war file.

webinf

The nested webinf element specifies a FileSet. All files included in this fileset will end up in the WEB-INF directory of the war file. If this fileset includes a file named web.xml, the file is ignored and you will get a warning.

metainf

The nested metainf element specifies a FileSet. All files included in this fileset will end up in the META-INF directory of the war file. If this fileset includes a file named MANIFEST.MF, the file is ignored and you will get a warning.

manifest, indexjars, service
These are inherited from <jar>
Examples

Assume the following structure in the project's base directory:

thirdparty/libs/jdbc1.jar thirdparty/libs/jdbc2.jar build/main/com/myco/myapp/Servlet.class src/metadata/myapp.xml src/html/myapp/index.html src/jsp/myapp/front.jsp src/graphics/images/gifs/small/logo.gif src/graphics/images/gifs/large/logo.gif
then the war file myapp.war created with
<war destfile="myapp.war" webxml="src/metadata/myapp.xml"> <fileset dir="src/html/myapp"/> <fileset dir="src/jsp/myapp"/> <lib dir="thirdparty/libs"> <exclude name="jdbc1.jar"/> </lib> <classes dir="build/main"/> <zipfileset dir="src/graphics/images/gifs" prefix="images"/> </war>
will consist of
WEB-INF/web.xml WEB-INF/lib/jdbc2.jar WEB-INF/classes/com/myco/myapp/Servlet.class META-INF/MANIFEST.MF index.html front.jsp images/small/logo.gif images/large/logo.gif
using Ant's default manifest file. The content of WEB-INF/web.xml is identical to src/metadata/myapp.xml.
We regularly receive bug reports that this task is creating the WEB-INF directory as web-inf (all lower case), and thus it is our fault your webapp doesn't work. The cause of these complaints lies in WinZip, which turns an all upper-case directory into an all lower case one in a fit of helpfulness. Please check that jar xvf yourwebapp.war shows the same behaviour before filing another report.
Winzip has an option allowing all uppercase names (which is off by default!). It can be enabled by: Menu "Options" -> "Configuration", "View" property/tab page, then "General" group box has an option called "Allow all uppercase file names".

Attribute	Description	Required
destfile	the WAR file to create.	Exactly one of the two.
warfile	Deprecated name of the file to create -use `destfile` instead.	Exactly one of the two.
webxml	The servlet configuration descriptor to use (WEB-INF/web.xml).	Yes, unless `needxmlfile` is true, the file is pulled in via a nested fileset, or an existing WAR file is being updated.
needxmlfile	Flag to indicate whether or not the web.xml file is needed. It should be set to false when generating servlet 2.5+ WAR files without a web.xml file. Since Apache Ant 1.7	No -default "true"
basedir	the directory from which to jar the files.	No
compress	Not only store data but also compress them, defaults to true. Unless you set the keepcompression attribute to false, this will apply to the entire archive, not only the files you've added while updating.	No
keepcompression	For entries coming from existing archives (like nested zipfilesets or while updating the archive), keep the compression as it has been originally instead of using the compress attribute. Defaults false. Since Ant 1.6	No
encoding	The character encoding to use for filenames inside the archive. Defaults to UTF8. It is not recommended to change this value as the created archive will most likely be unreadable for Java otherwise. See also the discussion in the zip task page	No
filesonly	Store only file entries, defaults to false	No
includes	comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be included. All files are included when omitted.	No
includesfile	the name of a file. Each line of this file is taken to be an include pattern	No
excludes	comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be excluded. No files (except default excludes) are excluded when omitted.	No
excludesfile	the name of a file. Each line of this file is taken to be an exclude pattern	No
defaultexcludes	indicates whether default excludes should be used or not ("yes"/"no"). Default excludes are used when omitted.	No
manifest	the manifest file to use.	No
filesetmanifest	behavior when a Manifest is found in a zipfileset or zipgroupfileset file is found. Valid values are "skip", "merge", and "mergewithoutmain". "merge" will merge all of the manifests together, and merge this into any other specified manifests. "mergewithoutmain" merges everything but the Main section of the manifests. Default value is "skip".	No
whenmanifestonly	behavior when no files match. Valid values are "fail", "skip", and "create". Default is "create".	No
update	indicates whether to update or overwrite the destination file if it already exists. Default is "false".	No
duplicate	behavior when a duplicate file is found. Valid values are "add", "preserve", and "fail". The default value is "add".	No
roundup	Whether the file modification times will be rounded up to the next even number of seconds. Zip archives store file modification times with a granularity of two seconds, so the times will either be rounded up or down. If you round down, the archive will always seem out-of-date when you rerun the task, so the default is to round up. Rounding up may lead to a different type of problems like JSPs inside a web archive that seem to be slightly more recent than precompiled pages, rendering precompilation useless. Defaults to true. Since Ant 1.6.2	No
level	Non-default level at which file compression should be performed. Valid values range from 0 (no compression/fastest) to 9 (maximum compression/slowest). Since Ant 1.7	No
preserve0permissions	when updating an archive or adding entries from a different archive Ant will assume that a Unix permissions value of 0 (nobody is allowed to do anything to the file/directory) means that the permissions haven't been stored at all rather than real permissions and will instead apply its own default values. Set this attribute to true if you really want to preserve the original permission field.since Ant 1.8.0	No, default is false
useLanguageEncodingFlag	Whether to set the language encoding flag if the encoding is UTF-8. This setting doesn't have any effect if the encoding is not UTF-8. Since Ant 1.8.0. See also the discussion in the zip task page	No, default is true
createUnicodeExtraFields	Whether to create unicode extra fields to store the file names a second time inside the entry's metadata. Possible values are "never", "always" and "not-encodeable" which will only add Unicode extra fields if the file name cannot be encoded using the specified encoding. Since Ant 1.8.0. See also the discussion in the zip task page	No, default is "never"
fallbacktoUTF8	Whether to use UTF-8 and the language encoding flag instead of the specified encoding if a file name cannot be encoded using the specified encoding. Since Ant 1.8.0. See also the discussion in the zip task page	No, default is false
mergeClassPathAttributes	Whether to merge the Class-Path attributes found in different manifests (if merging manifests). If false, only the attribute of the last merged manifest will be preserved. Since Ant 1.8.0. unless you also set flattenAttributes to true this may result in manifests containing multiple Class-Path attributes which violates the manifest specification.	No, default is false
flattenAttributes	Whether to merge attributes occurring more than once in a section (this can only happen for the Class-Path attribute) into a single attribute. Since Ant 1.8.0.	No, default is false
zip64Mode	When to use Zip64 extensions for entries. The possible values are "never", "always" and "as-needed". Since Ant 1.9.1. See also the discussion in the zip task page	No, default is "never"