title: Reading from .properties file in Ant build.xml
body: <p>I need some help with using Ant's property files. I have the following:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>A <em>build.properties</em> file. This file contains one piece of
  information: <code>on=1</code></p></li>
  <li><p>An ant.xml file. This file contains my build instructions.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I want to read the <code>on</code> attribute from my properties file and if the value is <code>1</code> I want to execute a task in my build file. Otherwise I want it to do nothing. Can anyone guide me on how to accomplish this?</p>