Steve Loughran suggested I enter this enhancement. I would like to accomplish something like the following using the <file> resource from the ANT 1.7 Resource Framework: <file name="tlog.resource" basedir="C:\" file="my_patch.txt" create="yes" /> <echo message="Patch Created: ${tlog.resource.lastmodified}" /> Generally, the requirement is to create a way of reading all the attributes of a resource that are not explicitly set.