How to change the Path variable in ant exec task? - ant

Question

I tried setting the Path variable in ant exec task using this link. But its not working somehow. I am trying to add THRIFT_HOME which is set to basedir currently and I have the thrift.exe file in the basedir.
Also, when I change executable attribute value to thrift.exe, the thrift compiler works properly but the basedir is not added to the Path.
<exec executable="thrift">
<env key="Path" value="${env.Path};${THRIFT_HOME}" />
</exec>
I also tried using the setx command as:
<exec executable="setx">
<arg value="Path"/>
<arg value="%Path%;${THRIFT_HOME}"/>
</exec>
but it still does not work.
Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

how about this:
<property environment="env"/>
<!-- to see if you can access it -->
<echo message="${env.Path}" />
<exec executable="thrift">
<env key="Path" value="${env.Path};${THRIFT_HOME}" />
</exec>
I've found a hint here: http://www.factsandpeople.com/facts-mainmenu-5/23-other-software-technologies/125-using-environment-variables-in-ant-environment-variables-are-not-evaluated

Answer 2

I am currently using on Windows 7 and the problem was with spaces in the folder name. That's a big problem when working on Windows.
I tried placing the thrift executable at /d/thrift/ and it worked and assigning THRIFT_HOME = /d/thrift. Then I tried /d/thrift demo/ and there is the problem.
D:\noknok_fido_to_ostp\noknok_fido_to_ostp_workspace\Demo\build.xml:33: Execute failed: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "thrift-0.9.0.exe": CreateProces
s error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:460)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Runtime.java:593)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Execute$Java13CommandLauncher.exec(Execute.java:862)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Execute.launch(Execute.java:481)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Execute.execute(Execute.java:495)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.ExecTask.runExecute(ExecTask.java:631)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.ExecTask.runExec(ExecTask.java:672)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.ExecTask.execute(ExecTask.java:498)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:291)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor4.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.apache.tools.ant.dispatch.DispatchUtils.execute(DispatchUtils.java:106)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:348)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.execute(Target.java:392)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.performTasks(Target.java:413)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeSortedTargets(Project.java:1399)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTarget(Project.java:1368)
at org.apache.tools.ant.helper.DefaultExecutor.executeTargets(DefaultExecutor.java:41)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTargets(Project.java:1251)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:811)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.startAnt(Main.java:217)
at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:280)
at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:109)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.create(Native Method)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.<init>(ProcessImpl.java:81)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(ProcessImpl.java:30)
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:453)
... 23 more
Another problem is that /d/thrift doesn't work in Eclipse Ant plugin build. I tried it using command prompt and the build was successful.
This teaches a new lesson: Always build from command prompt!
Thanks to all who answered for this question.

Answer 3

And what about searchpath attribute ?
searchpath: When this attribute is true, then system path environment variables will be searched when resolving the location of the executable. since Ant 1.6.3
So I think something like this:
<exec executable="thrift" searchpath="true">
<env key="Path" value="${env.Path};${THRIFT_HOME}" />
</exec>
should work.

Answer 4

I found it works by quote the value of variable
<exec executable="setx">
<arg line="Path "${env.Path};c:\test Path"" />
<arg line="/m" />
</exec>
https://stackoverflow.com/a/23777929/3659861