XInclude allows a user to import or include other XML files into one xml file. It is used primarily with documentation file formats like Docbook and DITA. It allows for separating out large xml documents into more manageable chunks of information.
The XSL Tooling project includes an ANT task that can be run with in eclipse, eclipse headless, and without eclipse at all. If running outside of eclipse, you will need to make sure that the jar file xinclude.jar in the org.eclipse.wst.xsl.core.jar file is made avaiable on your class path.
The following parameters are available on the xsl.xinclude ANT task:
in - The full path to the input file that contains the file with the XIncludes. If the files that it includes have includes, then those will be brought in an expanded as well.
out - The full path to the output file to be written with all includes expanded. This is typically used as the input to a stylesheet transformation process.
Example 1.1. XInclude Example
<target name="merge">
<xsl.xinclude in="${docbooksource}/xslhelp.dbk"
out="${docbooksource}/xslhelpcombined.dbk"/>
</target>