Echoes a message to the current loggers and listeners which means System.out unless
overridden. A level can be specified, which controls at what logging level the message is
filtered at.
The task can also echo to a file, in which case the option to append rather than overwrite the file is available, and the level option is ignored
| Attribute | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| message | the message to echo. | No; defaults to a blank line unless text is included in a character section within this element |
| file | the file to write the message to. | No; only one of these may be used |
| output | the Resource to write the message to (see note). Since Apache Ant 1.8 | |
| append | Append to an existing file (or open a new file / overwrite an existing file)? | No; ignored unless output indicates a filesystem destination, default
is false |
| level | Control the level at which this message is reported. One
of error, warning, info, verbose, debug(decreasing order) |
No; default is warning |
| encoding | encoding to use. since Ant 1.7 | No; defaults to default JVM character encoding |
| force | Overwrite read-only destination files. since Ant 1.8.2 | No; defaults to false |
Basic use:
<echo message="Hello, world"/>
<echo message="Embed a line break:${line.separator}"/>
<echo>Embed another:${line.separator}</echo>
<echo>This is a longer message stretching over two lines. </echo>
The newline immediately following the <echo> tag is part of the
output. Newlines in character data within the content of an element are not discarded by XML
parsers.
See W3C Recommendation
26 November 2008 / End of Line handling for more details.
<echo> This is a longer message stretching over three lines; the first line is a blank </echo>
A message which only appears in -debug mode.
<echo message="Deleting drive C:" level="debug"/>
A message which appears even in -quiet mode.
<echo level="error"> Imminent failure in the antimatter containment facility. Please withdraw to safe location at least 50km away. </echo>
Generate a shell script by echoing to a file. Note the use of a double $
symbol to stop
Ant filtering out the single $
during variable expansion.
<echo file="runner.csh" append="false">#\!/bin/tcsh
java-1.3.1 -mx1024m ${project.entrypoint} $$*
</echo>
Depending on the log level Ant runs at, messages are print out or silently ignored:
| Ant command line | -quiet, -q | no switch | -verbose, -v | -debug, -d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
<echo message="This is error message." level="error"/> |
ok | ok | ok | ok |
<echo message="This is warning message."/> |
ok | ok | ok | ok |
<echo message="This is warning message." level="warning"/> |
ok | ok | ok | ok |
<echo message="This is info message." level="info"/> |
not logged | ok | ok | ok |
<echo message="This is verbose message." level="verbose"/> |
not logged | not logged | ok | ok |
<echo message="This is debug message." level="debug"/> |
not logged | not logged | not logged | ok |