classesa directory created during build

[axw001]

Apache NetBeans version

Apache NetBeans 24

What happened

A new unwanted directory is appearing in the build directory and so being included in the .war file

/build/web/WEB-INF/classesa/NetbeansProjects/jaffa/build/web/javascript/[various files here]

The folder contains files that are generated and written to the web directory during the build.

If I subsequently edit files in under the web directory of the project they start to appear in the classesa directory with additional directory tree structure

Language / Project Type / NetBeans Component

java ant web application project

How to reproduce

The directory /build/web/WEB-INF/classesa/ is created and populated with files when I do a clean build.

In my build I am compacting and merging javascript files and copying them to the web/javascript directory which seems to trigger adding the classesa directory during the build...

When files under the web directory are subsequently modified the classesa directory gets added to with the jsp files I have edited.

Did this work correctly in an earlier version?

No / Don't know

Operating System

Mac OSX 11.7.10

JDK

open JDK 17

Apache NetBeans packaging

Apache NetBeans provided installer

Anything else

Every time I build

Are you willing to submit a pull request?

No

[matthiasblaesing]

Please show your project (or a minimal reproducer).

[axw001]

Hi Matthias

Thanks for giving this your attention. Sorry not to come back to you sooner but I have a newborn in the house and so have to manage my priorities somewhat...

I have resolved the issue for my own purposes by adding a 'pre-dist' delete task to my Ant build.xml to remove the offending directory.

To reproduce the behaviour in Netbeans 24:

-Click add new project
-Select Category Java with Ant/Java Web/Web Application
-Do a clean and build and then review the contents of build/web/WEB-INF/ - you will see there is a classes directory but no classesa directory.
-Make an edit to the index.html, save, and then review the contents of build/web/WEB-INF/ - you will see there is now a classesa directory created with subdirectories that ultimately contain a copy of the index.html file.

Do you agree that it seems strange and unnecessary for this directory ( build/web/WEB-INF/classesa/ ) to be added to the build directory? I am not 100% sure this is new to v24 but I have not noticed it before.

This is not an exact reproduction of my case where the file changes are a result of my build packaging our javascript files, but the mechanism is the same in that the behaviour is triggered by a change to any files in/below the web directory.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards

Alan

[matthiasblaesing]

@axw001 thanks for steps to reproduce. With these I was able to track it down and recreated the issue with the additional info (#8138)