[SOLVED] Why `**/*ant*` exclude pattern doesn't work, but `"**/*ant*/**` works fine?

Why `**/*ant*` exclude pattern doesn't work, but `"**/*ant*/**` works fine?

Let's say I have this in one of my targets:

<path id="files">
   <fileset dir="${env.DIRECTORY}" casesensitive="false">
     <include name="**/*.html"/>
     <exclude name="**/*ant*"/>
    </fileset>
</path>

I'd like to group all the html files, except the ones containing the string ant. The way I wrote it above, it does not work. I also tried specifying the exclude like this:

<exclude name="*ant*"/>

Please notice that the fileset has it's case sensitiveness turned off. However, if I write:

<exclude name="**/*ant*/**"/>

This does work. Why don't the first and second versions of exclude work?

Solution

First and second case don't match because you are searching for directory name containing ant

Third case matches all files that have a ant element in their path, including ant as a filename.

You can also refer this Ant documentation