## 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.

### 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 deployment descriptor to use (WEB-INF/web.xml). | Yes, unless update is set to 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. | 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
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

### 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.

### 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 regulary receive bug reports that this task is creating the WEB-INF directory, 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.

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