ANT sets properties by order, when something is set, the later same properties cannot OVERWRITE the previous ones. This is opposite to your Java SETTERS.

This give us a good leverage of preset all properties in one place, and overwrite only the needed. Give you an example here. You need password for a TASK, but don't want to share it with your team members, or not the developers outside your team.

Store your password in your ${user.home}/prj.properties
pswd=yourrealpassword
In your include directory master prj.properties
pswd=password
In your build-common.xml read properties files in this order

1. The commandline will prevail, if you use it: ant -Dpswd=newpassword
2. ${user.home}/prj.properties (personal)
3. yourprojectdir/prj.properties (project team wise)
4. your_master_include_directory/prj.properties (universal) 

<cvsnttask password="${pswd} ... />

Problem solved!

Ant sets properties by order, when something is set, the later same properties cannot overwrite the previous ones. This is opposite to your Java setters.

This give us a good leverage of preset all properties in one place, and overwrite only the needed. Give you an example here. You need password for a task, but don't want to share it with your team members, or not the developers outside your team.

Store your password in your ${user.home}/prj.properties
pswd=yourrealpassword
In your include directory master prj.properties
pswd=password
In your build-common.xml read properties files in this order

1. The commandline will prevail, if you use it: ant -Dpswd=newpassword
2. ${user.home}/prj.properties (personal)
3. yourprojectdir/prj.properties (project team wise)
4. your_master_include_directory/prj.properties (universal) 

<cvsnttask password="${pswd} ... />

Problem solved!