I want to use NAnt's foreach to iterate files in a folder, how to force alphabetic iteration? - build

Question

I have an NAnt task "ship" to package my current .sql scripts into a build, then name the build with an incrementing int {######} and copy it to a build folder.
I have another NAnt task which executes those build scripts.
They must execute in order, but in my last attempt, they were not. Can I "force" NAnt to work alphabetically?

Answer 1

FAIL:
<fileset basedir="source\tsql\builds\" id="buildfiles">
<include name="*.sql.template.sql" />
<exclude name="*.sql" />
<exclude name="*asSentTo*" />
</fileset>
<foreach item="File" property"filename">
<in refid="buildfiles">
<echo message="${filename}" />
</in>
</foreach>
PASS:
<foreach item="File" property="filename" in="source\tsql\builds">
<do>
<if test="${string::ends-with(filename,'.sql.template.sql')}">
<echo message="${filename}" />
</if>
</do>
</foreach>

Answer 2

To satisfy my curiosity I tried to reproduce the problem with this script:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="foreach.test" default="foreach.alpha">
<target name="foreach.alpha">
<foreach item="File" in="C:\foo" property="filename">
<do>
<echo message="${filename}" />
</do>
</foreach>
</target>
</project>
The filenames are printed out in alphabetical order. So conventional use of foreach already seems to be the solution to the problem.

Answer 3

Here is how you do it with a fileset
<fileset id="mySet">
<include name="*.sql" />
</fileset>
<copy>
<fileset refid="mySet" />
</copy>
<foreach item="File" property="filename">
<in>
<items refid="mySet" />
</in>
<do>
<echo message="Copied files: ${filename} to directory: ${Folder}." />
</do>
</foreach>