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<title>JFlex Ant Task</title>
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<h2><a name="JFlex">JFlex Ant Task</a></h2>
<p>
JFlex can be easily integrated with <a HREF="http://ant.apache.org/"
target="_top">Ant</a> build tool.
To use JFlex with Ant, simply copy JFlex.jar to <i>$ANT_HOME/lib/</i> directory.
</p>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>
The JFlex Ant Task invokes the <a HREF="http://jflex.de/" target="_top">JFlex</a> lexical
analyzer generator on a grammar file.
</p>
<p>
To use the JFlex task, the following line must be placed in the Ant build file:
</p>
<pre><taskdef classname="JFlex.anttask.JFlexTask" name="jflex" /></pre>
<p>
The JFlex task requires the <i>file</i> attribute to be set to the source grammar file (*.flex).
Unless the target directory is specified with the <i>destdir</i> option,
the generated class will be saved to the same directory where grammar file resides.
Like javac, the JFlex task creates subdirectories in <i>destdir</i> according to the
generated class package.
</p>
<p>
This task only invokes JFlex if the grammar file is newer than the generated
files.
</p>
<h3>Parameters</h3>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="80%">
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
<td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
<td align="center" valign="top"><b>Required</b></td>
<td align="center" valign="top"><b>Default</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">file="file"</td>
<td valign="top">The grammar file to process.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">Yes</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">destdir="dir"</td>
<td valign="top">
The directory to write the generated files to. If not set, the files
are written to the directory containing the grammar file. Note that unlike
JFlex's "-d" command line option, <i>destdir</i> causes the generated file to be written to
{destdir}/<b>{package name}</b>. This behaviour is similar to <i>javac -d dir</i>.
</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">outdir="dir"</td>
<td valign="top">
The directory to write the generated files to. If not set, the files
are written to the directory containing the grammar file. This options works
exactly like JFlex's "-d" command line option, it causes the output file to
be written to <i>dir</i> regardless of the package name.
</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">verbose</td>
<td valign="top">Display generation process messages.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">dump</td>
<td valign="top">Dump character classes, NFA and DFA tables.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">time or<p>timeStatistics</td>
<td valign="top">Display generation time statistics.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">nomin or<p>skipMinimization</td>
<td valign="top">Skip minimization step.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">skel="file" or<p>skeleton="file"</td>
<td valign="top">Use external skeleton file.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">dot or<p>generateDot</td>
<td valign="top">Write graphviz .dot files for the generated automata (alpha).</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">nobak</td>
<td valign="top">Do not make a backup if the generated file exists.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">switch</td>
<td valign="top">Use code generation method <i>switch</t>.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">table</td>
<td valign="top">Use code generation method <i>table</t>.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"off"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">pack</td>
<td valign="top">Use code generation method <i>pack</t>.</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
<td align="center" valign="top">"on"</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h3>Example</h3>
<blockquote><pre>
<jflex
file="src/parser/Parser.flex"
destdir="build/generated/"
/>
</pre></blockquote>
<p>
JFlex generates the lexical analyzer for <tt>src/parser/Parser.flex</tt> and saves the result
to <tt>build/generated/parser/</tt>, providing <tt>Parser.flex</tt> declares to be in package <tt>parser</tt>.
</p>
<blockquote><pre>
<jflex
file="src/parser/Parser.flex"
destdir="build/generated/"
/>
<javac
srcdir="build/generated/"
destdir="build/classes/"
/>
</pre></blockquote>
<p>
The same as above plus compile generated classes to <i>build/classes</i>
</p>
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