Re: Is behavior of available task on empty file attribute as expected?

On 2025-11-13, Kottmann, Renzo (Finanzen) 443-1 wrote:

> My very first question after all the years using it (even before Maven came to life):

:-), welcome.

> Using Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.15

>     <!-- expected? An empty  string should not lead to the statement the file would exist?!? -->
>     <available file="" property="file.prop.empty" />
> <!-- gives: empty file.present=true  -->
>     <echo message="empty file.present=${file.prop.empty}" />

>   <!-- expected -->
>     <available file="${basedir}" property="file.exist" />
>     <echo message="${basedir} present=${file.exist}" />

> Is this a bug or feature I do not know the reason for?

The file attribute is resolved relative to the projects basedir so
effectively "" becomes new File(${basedir}, "") and thus is the basedir
itself.

This is the reason why you see the result, it does not really answer
whether this is intentional. I've been around for a while and don't
recall we ever explicitly thought about what an empty string for a
file-typed attributed would mean.

Stefan