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remove(unset) property in a property file using ANT PropertyFile task


Using PropertyFile task we can edit the property file during ANT build.

Edit property value are very easy and can find here details.
http://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/propertyfile.html

but delete a property or comment a property is the tricky one.
If we are using latest ant version (1.8.1 or later), we can delete a property like below.

<propertyfile file="my.properties" comment="My properties">
 
<entry  key="propertykey" operation="del"/>
</propertyfile>



but the older version that is before 1.8.1 don't have operation called "del", if we run the command in lower version ant, we will get a error says undefined operation "del".    

there is workaround instead deleting a property we can comment that property using ant's replace command.

<replace file="sample.properties">
                    
<replacefilter token="propertykey" value="#propertykey "/>
< /replace>



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