java - ant task to remove files from a jar

Question

How to write an ant task that removes files from a previously compiled JAR?

Let's say the files in my JAR are:

aaa/bbb/ccc/Class1
aaa/bbb/ccc/Class2
aaa/bbb/def/Class3
aaa/bbb/def/Class4

... and I want a version of this JAR file without the aaa.bbb.def package, and I need to strip it out using ant, such that I end up with a JAR that contains:

aaa/bbb/ccc/Class1
aaa/bbb/ccc/Class2

Thanks!

Answer 1

Have you tried using the zipfileset task?

<jar destfile="stripped.jar">
    <zipfileset src="full.jar" excludes="files/to/exclude/**/*.file"/>
</jar>

---

For example:

<property name="library.dir" value="dist"/>
<property name="library.file" value="YourJavaArchive.jar"/>
<property name="library.path" value="${library.dir}/${library.file}" />
<property name="library.path.new" value="${library.dir}/new-${library.file}"/>

<target name="purge-superfluous">
    <echo>Removing superfluous files from Java archive.</echo>

    <jar destfile="${library.path.new}">
        <zipfileset src="${library.path}" excludes="**/ComicSans.ttf"/>
    </jar>

    <delete file="${library.path}" />
    <move file="${library.path.new}" tofile="${library.path}" />
</target>