Pro Apache Ant : [learn to use Apache Ant, the standard by Matthew Modie

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Classpath accepts a standard classpath and will convert the string into one that is appropriate for the local operating system. You can also specify a classpath with a nested element, which performs the same operation as the classpath attribute. Listing 3-23 shows both of these techniques. Listing 3-23.

Using a Reference The second partner to name is refid, which is a reference to an object defined elsewhere in the file. The reference allows you to reuse chunks of the build file (termed an object in this case) so that common classpaths and paths can be shared among targets. Many tasks have a refid attribute, and they all perform similar tasks. In the case of the task, the refid attribute assigns the value of the referenced object to the property named with the name attribute. There is no point in assigning anything other than a pathlike structure in this case because you won’t be able to use any other kind of reference once it has been stored in the property.

If you are working on a Unix system, substitute the Windows path to see the example in action. Listing 3-14. path variable is a string property with Unix-style file and path separators (or Windows-style ones if you have changed the file on Unix). path property into it. Ant converts this string to the local operating system format before storing it as a reference. property so that you can see the new, converted value of the path. In other words, the task does not support the refid property and so cannot display the contents of a reference, which in this case you want to do.