waitforexit cannot capture failures

[wernight]

Currently to speed up a build tasks must be executed in parallel. The lack of <parallel> (from Ant) forces lesser solutions like <exec ...> followed by <waitforexit>.

The major problem is that neither <exec> nor <waitforexit> can help check the program didn't throw an error (even with failonexit or resultproperty). I know the documentation says it's the current behavior but that's very limiting.

Example:

<project>
<target name="foo">
    <exec spawn="true" pidproperty="pid" failonerror="false" resultproperty="result" program="cmd" commandline="/c girbish" />
    <waitforexit pid="${pid}" />
    <echo>${result}</echo>
</target>
</project>

This will always display -1000 and never fail.

[Thermionix]

any temporary workaround?

[wernight]

A custom parallel execute plugin for NAnt is very simple to build.

See https://gist.github.com/wernight/4978408

[dguder]

I really would like to add this to nantcontrib, but it is using Parallel.For which is not available in .net 2.0. Maybe there is another 2.0 compatible version out there.

[rmboggs]

Just a thought, what about creating a new lib in nantcontrib that targets the .net 4.0 runtime? I know that the NAnt.MSBuild lib use to target .net 2.0 when NAnt was being built for 1.0. Call it something like NAntContrib.ThreadedTasks or something like that.

Just thinking out loud...