NAnt Task

NAnt

Description

Runs the NAnt build tool.

You can either use an existing build file or nest a build file (snippet) as a child into the task. If you don't specify either, NAnt's default build file search algorithm will apply.

Parameters

Attribute	Description	Required
buildfile	External build file to invoke NAnt on.	No.
vm	Same as dotnetexec's vm attribute. Specify the framework to use.	No.

Parameters specified as nested elements

target

target has a single required attribute name - specifies a target to be run.

property

property has two required attributes. name and value that specify name and value of a property that is to be defined in the NAnt invocation.

build

This element allows no attributes. You can nest a NAnt build file into it and NAnt will be executed on that. You can also nest a build file snippet instead and Ant will wrap the necessary NAnt <project> around it.

Examples

Let NAnt search for a *.build file in the (Ant) project's base directory and execute the default target in it:

<nant/>

Let NAnt execute the targets named foo and bar in the build file nant.build in Ant's basedir and pass the property -D:test=testvalue to it:

      <nant buildfile="nant.build">
        <target name="foo"/>
        <target name="bar"/>
        <property name="test" value="testvalue"/>
      </nant>

Define a build file embeded into the task, let NAnt execute the echo target of that build file.

      <nant>
        <target name="echo">
        <build>
          <project basedir="." default="empty">
            <target name="empty"/>
            <target name="echo">
              <echo message="this is NAnt"/>
            </target>
          </project>
        </build>
      </nant>

Run NAnt's echo task:

      <nant>
        <build>
          <echo message="this is NAnt"/>
        </build>
      </nant>