Following stack trace is received when trying to delete the contents of a directory using the <ftp> task: The following error occurred while executing this line: java.lang.NullPointerException at org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper.addLocationToBuildException(ProjectHelper.java:539) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.MacroInstance.execute(MacroInstance.java:380) at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:275) at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:364) at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.execute(Target.java:341) at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.performTasks(Target.java:369) at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeSortedTargets(Project.java:1216) at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTarget(Project.java:1185) at org.apache.tools.ant.helper.DefaultExecutor.executeTargets(DefaultExecutor.java:40) at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTargets(Project.java:1068) at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:668) at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.startAnt(Main.java:187) at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:246) at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:67) Caused by: /home2/builder/project-name/checkouts/build/reports-build.xml:577: java.lang.NullPointerException at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:373) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Sequential.execute(Sequential.java:64) at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:275) at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:364) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.MacroInstance.execute(MacroInstance.java:378) ... 12 more Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.net.FTP$FTPDirectoryScanner.scandir(FTP.java:337) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.net.FTP$FTPDirectoryScanner.scandir(FTP.java:351) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.net.FTP$FTPDirectoryScanner.checkIncludePatterns(FTP.java:233) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.net.FTP$FTPDirectoryScanner.scan(FTP.java:197) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.net.FTP.transferFiles(FTP.java:1287) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.net.FTP.transferFiles(FTP.java:1382) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.net.FTP.execute(FTP.java:2010) at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:275) at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:364) ... 16 more Relevant section of reports-build.xml: <ftp action="del" server="@{server}" userid="@{userid}" password="@{password}" remotedir="@{basedir}/@{type}/doc" ignoreNonCriticalErrors="true"> <fileset includes="**" /> </ftp> 'ls -l' of @{remotedir}: 229 Entering Extended Passive Mode (|||42002|) 150 Here comes the directory listing. drwxr-xr-x 4 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 api drwxr-xr-x 2 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 checkstyle drwxr-xr-x 2 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 cpd drwxr-xr-x 2 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:42 findbugs drwxr-xr-x 2 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 hansel drwxr-xr-x 2 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 jdepend drwxr-xr-x 5 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 level2 drwxr-xr-x 2 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 pmd drwxr-xr-x 2 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 qualityaudit drwxr-xr-x 2 503 8 4096 Mar 04 14:43 test 226 Directory send OK.
Sorry, forgot to add versions: I get this error with ant 1.7.0 and 1.6.5, ant-commons-net-1.6.5, commons-net-1.4.0.
the directory most probably contains a file created at Feb 29th *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 41724 ***