The retrieve task copies resolved dependencies anywhere you want in your file system. This is a [[ant:postresolvetask post resolve task]], with all the behaviour and attributes common to all post resolve tasks. <span class="since">since 1.4</span> This task can even be used to synchronize the destination directory with what should actually be in according to the dependency resolution. This means that by setting sync="true", Ivy will not only copy the necessary files, but it will also remove the files which do not need to be there. The synchronisation actually consists in deleting all filles and directories in the root destination directory which are not required by the retrieve. The root destination directory is the the directory denoted by the first level up the first token in the destination pattern. Example: pattern: lib/[conf]/[artifact].[ext] root: lib <table class="ant"> <thead> <tr><th class="ant-att">Attribute</th><th class="ant-desc">Description</th><th class="ant-req">Required</th></tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr><td>pattern</td><td>the pattern to use to copy the dependencies</td> <td>No. Defaults to ${ivy.retrieve.pattern}</td></tr> <tr><td>ivypattern</td><td>the pattern to use to copy the ivy files of dependencies <span class="since">since 1.3</span></td> <td>No. Dependencies ivy files are not retrieved by default.</td></tr> <tr><td>conf</td><td>a comma separated list of the configurations to retrieve</td> <td>No. Defaults to the configurations resolved by the last resolve call, or * if no resolve was explicitly called</td></tr> <tr><td>sync</td><td>true to synchronize the destination, false to just make a copy <span class="since">since 1.4</span></td> <td>No. Defaults to false</td></tr> <tr><td>type</td><td>comma separated list of accepted artifact types <span class="since">since 1.4</span></td> <td>No. All artifact types are accepted by default.</td></tr> <tr><td>symlink</td><td>true to create symbolic links, false to copy the artifacts. The destination of the symbolic links depends on the value of the useOrigin attribute <span class="since">(since 2.0)</span></td><td>No. Defaults to false</td></tr> <tr><td>settingsRef</td><td>A reference to the ivy settings that must be used by this task <span class="since">(since 2.0)</span></td><td>No, 'ivy.instance' is taken by default.</td></tr></tbody> <tr><td>log</td><td>the log setting to use during the resolve and retrieve process. <span class="since">(since 2.0)</span><br/> Available options are the same as for [[ant:resolve]] when used to trigger resolve automatically (see [[ant:postresolvetask]]), or the following for the retrieve process only: <ul><li>default</li> the default log settings, where all usual messages are output to the console <li>quiet</li> disable all usual messages, making the whole retrieve process quiet unless errors occur </ul></td><td>No, defaults to 'default'.</td></tr> </table> <h1>Examples</h1> <code type="xml"> <ivy:retrieve /> </code> Retrieves dependencies using default parameters. This usually retrieves all the dependencies of the last resolve call to a lib directory. <hr/> <code type="xml"> <ivy:retrieve pattern="${lib.dir}/[conf]/[artifact].[ext]"/> </code> Retrieves all dependencies of the last resolve call to a lib directory, dependencies being separated in directories named by configuration, each conf directory containing corresponding artifacts without the revision. For instance, if the ivy file declares two configurations default and test, the resulting lib dir could look like this: <code> lib default commons-lang.jar commons-logging.jar test junit.jar </code> Note that if a dependency is required in the two configurations, it will be copied in the two directories. The download of the dependency is however only made once at resolve time. <hr/> <code type="xml"> <ivy:retrieve pattern="${lib.dir}/[conf]/[artifact].[ext]" sync="true" /> </code> Same as before, but with synchronisation enabled. For instance, if the ivy file declares two configurations default and test, the resulting lib dir could look like this: <code> lib default commons-lang.jar commons-logging.jar test junit.jar </code> And now suppose commons-logging is no longer part of the dependencies of the default configuration, then a new call to retrieve will result in: <code> lib default commons-lang.jar test junit.jar </code> With no synchronisation, commons-logging would not have been removed by the call. <hr/> <code type="xml"> <ivy:retrieve pattern="${lib.dir}/[type]/[artifact]-[revision].[ext]" conf="runtime"/> </code> Retrieves only the dependencies of the <code>runtime</code> configuration in directories named by artifact type. The resulting lib dir could look like this: <code> lib jar commons-lang-1.0.jar looks-1.1.jar source looks-1.1.zip </code> <hr/> <code type="xml"> <ivy:retrieve organisation="foo" module="bar" inline="true" pattern="${my.install.dir}/[artifact].[ext]"/> </code> Resolves and retrieve the latest version of the module bar and its dependencies in the directory pointed by ${my.install.dir}.