Convert Java properties file to sed commands using ant

 HOWTO

•  https://gemini.google.com/app
•  https://ant-contrib.sourceforge.net/
• https://ant-contrib.sourceforge.net/tasks/tasks/for.html 
• Get  antcontrib.jar via Maven  https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/ant-contrib/ant-contrib/1.0b3
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3056395/how-can-i-iterate-over-properties-from-a-file 
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7102793/how-to-put-a-newline-in-ant-property 
• AntContrib propertyselector https://ant-contrib.sourceforge.net/tasks/tasks/propertyselector.html
  

GitHub

• Get antcontrib.jar https://github.com/dveselka/java-tutorial/blob/master/tools/pom.xml
  
• ant file to produce sed commands from property file https://github.com/dveselka/java-tutorial/blob/master/tools/build.xml
   

Install antcontrib 

Get via Maven  https://github.com/dveselka/java-tutorial/blob/master/tools/pom.xml

To install ant-contrib:

1. Copy ant-contrib-0.3.jar to the lib directory of your Ant installation. If you want to use one of the tasks in your own project, add the lines

   <taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties"/>
   

   to your build file.
2. Keep ant-contrib-0.3.jar in a separate location. You now have to tell Ant explicitly where to find it (say in /usr/share/java/lib):

   <taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antcontrib.properties">
     <classpath>
       <pathelement location="/usr/share/java/lib/ant-contrib-0.3.jar"/>
     </classpath>
   </taskdef>

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>dave</groupId>
    <artifactId>tools</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>

    <parent>
        <groupId>dave</groupId>
        <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    </parent>

    <dependencies>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/ant-contrib/ant-contrib -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>ant-contrib</groupId>
            <artifactId>ant-contrib</artifactId>
            <version>1.0b3</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/lib</outputDirectory>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

$ mvn clean install


[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:copy-dependencies (default) @ tools ---
[INFO] Copying ant-contrib-1.0b3.jar to /git/java-tutorial/tools/target/lib/ant-contrib-1.0b3.jar
[INFO] Copying ant-1.5.jar to /git/java-tutorial/tools/target/lib/ant-1.5.jar

 Properties file https://github.com/dveselka/java-tutorial/blob/master/tools/dave.properties

Build.xml to produce sed file from properties file https://github.com/dveselka/java-tutorial/blob/master/tools/build.xml

<project name="properties-to-sed">

    <taskdef resource="net/sf/antcontrib/antlib.xml">
        <classpath>
            <pathelement location="target/lib/ant-contrib-1.0b3.jar"/>
        </classpath>
    </taskdef>

    <target name="convert">
        
        <property file="dave.properties" prefix="dave."/>
        <propertyselector property="dave" match="dave\.(.*)" select="\1"/>
        
        <for param="key" list="${dave}">
            <sequential>
                <echo>@{key}=${dave.@{key}}</echo>
                <echo message="s#@{key}#${dave.@{key}}#g${line.separator}" file="replace-dave-props.sed" append="true"/>
            </sequential>
        </for>
    </target>
</project>

Run ant 

Sed file produced from properties file

$ cat replace-dave-props.sed
s#url#https://dave.com/dave#g
s#a#1#g
s#date#Sun Sep 15 08:43:48 AM CEST 2024#g
s#jdbc.url#jdbc:oracle:thin:dave@dave:1521/DAVE_DB#g

 Asking Gemimi for hints - useful, provided idea with antcontrib for cycle, needs fixing - add antcontrib install, fix for cycle

Approach:

1. Create a build.xml file:

   • Write the Ant build script in a build.xml file.
   • Define a target to perform the conversion.

2. Load properties file:

   • Use the property task to load the properties file.

3. Generate sed commands:

   • Use the for task to iterate over the properties entries.
   • For each entry, create a sed command using the echo task.

4. Write sed commands to file:

   • Use the echo task to write the generated sed commands to a file.

build.xml example:

<projectname="properties-to-sed"><targetname="convert"><propertyfile="replacements.properties"/><forparam="key"elements="${replacements.keys()}"><sequential><echomessage="s/${replacements.${key}}/${replacements.${key}}/g"file="sed_script.sed"append="true"/></sequential></for></target></project>

Explanation:

• The replacements.properties file should contain key-value pairs where the key is the search pattern and the value is the replacement string. For example:

search1=replacement1
search2=replacement2

• The build.xml file defines a convert target.
• The property task loads the properties file.
• The for task iterates over the keys in the properties file.
• For each key, an echo task creates a sed command using the key and value as the search pattern and replacement string.
• The echo task writes the sed command to the sed_script.sed file, appending it to the end of the file.

Additional considerations:

• You can customize the sed command format based on your specific requirements.
• If you need to escape special characters in the search patterns or replacement strings, use appropriate escape sequences.
• For more complex scenarios or performance optimization, consider using a dedicated scripting language like Python or Perl.

 Asking ChatGPT for comparison

# config.propertiesapp.name=MyAppapp.version=1.0.0app.author=John Doe

ant convert