Deletes a single file, a specified directory and all its files and
subdirectories, or a set of files specified by one or more
FileSets.
When specifying a set of files, empty directories are not removed by
default.
To remove empty directories, use the includeEmptyDirs attribute.
If you use this task to delete temporary files created by editors
and it doesn't seem to work, read up on the 
default exclusion set
in Directory-based Tasks, and see the
defaultexcludes attribute below.
 
| Attribute | Description | Required | 
| file | The file to delete, specified as either the simple filename (if the file exists in the current base directory), a relative-path filename, or a full-path filename. | At least one of the two,
     unless a <fileset>is specified. | 
| dir | The directory to delete, including all its files and
     subdirectories. Note: diris not used
     to specify a directory name forfile;fileanddirare independent of each other.WARNING: Do not set dirto".","${basedir}",
     or the full-pathname equivalent unless you truly intend to
     recursively remove the entire contents of the current base directory
     (and the base directory itself, if different from the current working
     directory). | |
| verbose | Whether to show the name of each deleted file. | No, default "false" | 
| quiet | If the specified file or directory does not exist,
     do not display a diagnostic message (unless Ant
     has been invoked with the ‑verboseor‑debugswitches) or modify the exit status to
     reflect an error.
     When set to "true", if a file or directory cannot be deleted,
     no error is reported. This setting emulates the-foption to the Unix rm command.
     Setting this to "true" implies settingfailonerrorto "false". | No, default "false" | 
| failonerror | Controls whether an error (such as a failure to
    delete a file) stops the build or is merely reported to the screen.
    Only relevant if quietis "false". | No, default "true" | 
| includeemptydirs | Whether to delete empty directories when using filesets. | No, default "false" | 
| includes | Deprecated.  Use <fileset>.
      Comma- or space-separated list of patterns of
      files that must be deleted. All files are relative to the directory
      specified indir. | No | 
| includesfile | Deprecated.  Use <fileset>.
      The name of a file. Each line of
      this file is taken to be an include pattern. | No | 
| excludes | Deprecated.  Use <fileset>.
      Comma- or space-separated list of patterns of
      files that must be excluded from the deletion list.
      All files are relative to the directory specified indir.
      No files (except default excludes) are excluded when omitted. | No | 
| excludesfile | Deprecated.  Use <fileset>.
      The name of a file. Each line of
      this file is taken to be an exclude pattern | No | 
| defaultexcludes | Deprecated.  Use <fileset>.
      Whether to use 
      default excludes. | No, default "true" | 
| deleteonexit | Indicates whether to use File#deleteOnExit() if there is a failure to delete a file, this causes the jvm to attempt to delete the file when the jvm process is terminating. Since Ant 1.6.2 | No, default "false". | 
<delete file="/lib/ant.jar"/>
deletes the file /lib/ant.jar.
<delete dir="lib"/>
deletes the lib directory, including all files 
and subdirectories of lib.
  <delete>
    <fileset dir="." includes="**/*.bak"/>
  </delete>
deletes all files with the extension .bak from the current directory 
and any subdirectories.
  <delete includeEmptyDirs="true">
    <fileset dir="build"/>
  </delete>
deletes all files and subdirectories of build, including
build itself.
  <delete includeemptydirs="true">
    <fileset dir="build" includes="**/*"/>
  </delete>
deletes all files and subdirectories of build, without
build itself.
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