I have to batch process a list of files by scanning a directory and process the files inside one by one.

Each file is further processed line by line.

Coming from a spring batch background, to do this I scan the directory, take the first file in the list, process it in a batch step and move the file elsewhere after the processing then return to the directory scan step to load another file.

This goes on until there is no more file left in the directory.

And here is where I face a problem : the JSR-352 specification does not allow loopbacks to an execution element even though there is a clearly defined exit condition to prevent an endless loop.

(With the error returned :

JBERET000607: The step loadFilesStep would form a loopback in sequence: [loadFilesStep, processED2AStep, fileRejectedStep]

Any idea on how I can get around this without implementing an overly complicated would be much appreciated.