NAnt Property to lowercase

Question

I want to protect against incorrect case being placed within a parameter in a nant script.

I want to take the value of x and convert it to lower case, I tried using

string::to-lower()

but that did not work hoping someone has come across this and has a simple solution.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <project name="test" Default="test" value="net-4.0" >

     <property name="x" value="default" unless="${property::exists('x')}"/>

     <target name="test">
       <echo message="${x}" />
     </target>
   </project>

UPDATE

I tried the suggestion put forward by Yan with the code below this still outputs capitals I will explain further

I have a nant script that has a parameter that can be passed into it, a property checks for the existence of the parameter and if it exists it uses it, if not there is a default value. I want to take the parameter in whatever form it is given and convert it to lower case while still checking for its existence.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<property overwrite="true" name="x" value="default" unless="${property::exists('x')}"/>
<property overwrite="true" name="x" value="${string::to-lower(x)}" />

<target name="test">
    <echo message="${x}" />
</target>
</project>

I believe this to be the way you think I should do it Yan. I have tested this with the following command line arguments.

nant -buildfile:nant.build test -D:x=TEST

This produces the output

 Target framework: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
 Target(s) specified: test

 [property] Read-only property "x" cannot be overwritten.

 test:

 [echo] TEST

 BUILD SUCCEEDED - 0 non-fatal error(s), 1 warning(s)

 Total time: 0.1 seconds.

any solution would be much appreciated

Answer 1

When you say parameter, so you mean its name or its value? ie, do you want to ensure x is lowercase, or test (I assume the latter)? If I have the following nant script:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<project name="test" Default="test" value="net-4.0" >

    <property overwrite="false" name="x" value="default"/>
    <property overwrite="false" name="x_internal" value="${string::to-lower(x)}" />

    <target name="test">
        <echo message="${x_internal}" />
    </target>
</project>

And call it like this:

nant.exe -buildfile:nant.build test -D:x=TESTx
nant.exe -buildfile:nant.build test -D:X=TESTX

I receive the following response:

Target framework: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
Target(s) specified: test

test:

     [echo] testx

BUILD SUCCEEDED
Total time: 0 seconds.

Target framework: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
Target(s) specified: test

test:

     [echo] default

BUILD SUCCEEDED
Total time: 0 seconds.

Is this what you are after?

UPDATE

I think this is what is tripping you up:

Note: properties set on the command-line are always read-only.

(From section 4 in the NAnt Properties documentation)

Answer 2

The function you mentioned should work. See if you spelled the syntax correctly:

<echo message="${string::to-lower(x)}" />