NAnt - A .NET Build Tool

This is now fixed in CVS.

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Sorry for not responding to your clarification earlier, but
yes, I now think you are correct.

The <call> task has direct and indirect targets. The direct
target is the one named in the target="target-name"
attribute. The indirect targets are the dependencies of the
direct target.

The documentation says that the direct target will always be
executed, but the indirect targets will only be executed if
they haven't been executed before OR if cascade is true.
However, the code treats the direct target the same as
indirect targets, so it won't be executed if it has already
executed, unless cascade is true. The example in the
documentation serves as a good reproducer.

I also agree with both the documentation and Mike's
expectation, which is that the direct target should always
be executed, which means I disagree with Gert's initial
comment here.

The fix, unfortunately, is non-trivial. The dependency
logic is in Project.Execute, which is a public method that
shouldn't be changed without ensuring that its clients won't
break. My guess is that's ok, but it means reviewing all
calls on it from both NAnt and NAntContrib code. There are
other approaches, but this would produce the cleanest code.

Since there's a documented workaround, fixing this can be
postponed beyond 0.85.

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Reopened, since documentation and code still contradict each
other, as shown in my last comment.

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--- From the remarks section ---
When the CallTask is used to execute a target, both that
target and all its dependent targets will be re-executed. To
avoid dependent targets from being executed more than once,
two options are available: ... Set the CascadeDependencies
attribute to false.
---
This remark never states that the actual called target will
not be re-executed. Admittedly, it also doesn't say otherwise ;)

More important, the example on compiling a debug and a
release build shows that the called target should be
re-executed:

--- From the example in the xml comment ---
/// <project default="build">
/// <property name="debug" value="false" />
/// <target name="init">
/// <echo message="initializing" />
/// </target>
/// <target name="compile" depends="init">
/// <echo message="compiling with debug = ${debug}" />
/// </target>
/// <target name="build">
/// <property name="debug" value="false" />
/// <call target="compile" />
/// <property name="debug" value="true" />
/// <call target="compile" />
/// </target>
/// </project>
...
/// The CascadeDependenciesparameter of the CallTask
/// defaults to true, causing the "init" target to be
/// executed for both the "debug" and "release" build.
...
/// build:
/// init:
/// [echo] initializing
/// compile:
/// [echo] compiling with debug = false
/// init:
/// [echo] initializing
/// compile:
/// [echo] compiling with debug = true
/// BUILD SUCCEEDED
...
/// If the "init" should only be executed once, set the
/// CascadeDependencies attribute of the CallTask to false.
...
/// build:
/// init:
/// [echo] initializing
/// compile:
/// [echo] compiling with debug = false
/// compile:
/// [echo] compiling with debug = true
/// BUILD SUCCEEDED
---

What I interpret into this piece of documentation:
"Compile" is executed using the CallTask. And with cascade
set to false, the example's output shows that "compile"
should be re-executed, and only "init", on which "compile"
depends on, would not be re-executed.

But the actual code, and your explaination, indicate that
compile shouldn't be re-executed either.

So the second part of the example and the code contradict
each other and should be brought back into sync.

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The internal documentation in CallTask.cs looks correct to
me, which is not to say it couldn't be made clearer.
Exactly which sentence or sentences are you interpreting as
saying the opposite?

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Thanks for clarifying. May I recommend updating the
call-task's xml-comment, because it explicitly states otherwise.

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This is actually by design. The <call> task will not re-
execute a target unless "cascade" is set to "true".