double '*'

[Alain Laroche]

Hi,
in ant files I often see a double star "**" instead of a single star in
patterns given as arguments to some attributes.

Example:
<patternset id="non.test.sources">
<include name="**/*.java"/>
</patternset>
Why are two '*' needed,as a single star already matches any number of
characters? Is there a difference with <include name="*/*.java"/>?

Thank you.

[Janwillem Borleffs]

Alain Laroche wrote:

Why are two '*' needed,as a single star already matches any number of
characters? Is there a difference with <include name="*/*.java"/>?

'**' will match multiple directory levels, '*' only one level.

See: http://ant.apache.org/manual/dirtasks.html#patterns
JW