This user guide, like Gradle itself, is under very active development. Some parts of Gradle aren't documented as completely as they need to be. Some of the content presented won't be entirely clear or will assume that you know more about Gradle than you do. We need your help to improve this user guide. You can find out more about contributing to the documentation at the Gradle web site.

Throughout the user guide, you will find some diagrams that represent dependency relationships between Gradle tasks. These use something analogous to the UML dependency notation, which renders an arrow from one task to the task that the first task depends on.

Here is a list of some of Gradle's features.

We think the advantages of an internal DSL (based on a dynamic language) over XML are tremendous when used in build scripts. There are a couple of dynamic languages out there. Why Groovy? The answer lies in the context Gradle is operating in. Although Gradle is a general purpose build tool at its core, its main focus are Java projects. In such projects the team members will be very familiar with Java. We think a build should be as transparent as possible to all team members.

In that case, you might argue why we don't just use Java as the language for build scripts. We think this is a valid question. It would have the highest transparency for your team and the lowest learning curve, but because of the limitations of Java, such a build language would not be as nice, expressive and powerful as it could be. ^[1] Languages like Python, Groovy or Ruby do a much better job here. We have chosen Groovy as it offers by far the greatest transparency for Java people. Its base syntax is the same as Java's as well as its type system, its package structure and other things. Groovy provides much more on top of that, but with the common foundation of Java.

For Java developers with Python or Ruby knowledge or the desire to learn them, the above arguments don't apply. The Gradle design is well-suited for creating another build script engine in JRuby or Jython. It just doesn't have the highest priority for us at the moment. We happily support any community effort to create additional build script engines.

Gradle requires a Java JDK or JRE to be installed, version 6 or higher (to check, use java -version). Gradle ships with its own Groovy library, therefore Groovy does not need to be installed. Any existing Groovy installation is ignored by Gradle.

Gradle uses whatever JDK it finds in your path. Alternatively, you can set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the installation directory of the desired JDK.

You can download one of the Gradle distributions from the Gradle web site.

The Gradle distribution comes packaged as a ZIP. The full distribution contains:

For running Gradle, firstly add the environment variable GRADLE_HOME. This should point to the unpacked files from the Gradle website. Next add GRADLE_HOME/bin to your PATH environment variable. Usually, this is sufficient to run Gradle.

You run Gradle via the gradle command. To check if Gradle is properly installed just type gradle -v. The output shows the Gradle version and also the local environment configuration (Groovy, JVM version, OS, etc.). The displayed Gradle version should match the distribution you have downloaded.

JVM options for running Gradle can be set via environment variables. You can use either GRADLE_OPTS or JAVA_OPTS, or both. JAVA_OPTS is by convention an environment variable shared by many Java applications. A typical use case would be to set the HTTP proxy in JAVA_OPTS and the memory options in GRADLE_OPTS. Those variables can also be set at the beginning of the gradle or gradlew script.

Note that it's not currently possible to set JVM options for Gradle on the command line.

You can execute multiple tasks in a single build by listing each of the tasks on the command-line. For example, the command gradle compile test will execute the compile and test tasks. Gradle will execute the tasks in the order that they are listed on the command-line, and will also execute the dependencies for each task. Each task is executed once only, regardless of how it came to be included in the build: whether it was specified on the command-line, or as a dependency of another task, or both. Let's look at an example.

Below four tasks are defined. Both dist and test depend on the compile task. Running gradle dist test for this build script results in the compile task being executed only once.

Figure 4.1. Task dependencies

task compile << {
    println 'compiling source'
}

task compileTest(dependsOn: compile) << {
    println 'compiling unit tests'
}

task test(dependsOn: [compile, compileTest]) << {
    println 'running unit tests'
}

task dist(dependsOn: [compile, test]) << {
    println 'building the distribution'
}

> gradle dist test
:compile
compiling source
:compileTest
compiling unit tests
:test
running unit tests
:dist
building the distribution

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

Each task is executed only once, so gradle test test is exactly the same as gradle test.

You can exclude a task from being executed using the -x command-line option and providing the name of the task to exclude. Let's try this with the sample build file above.

> gradle dist -x test
:compile
compiling source
:dist
building the distribution

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

You can see from the output of this example, that the test task is not executed, even though it is a dependency of the dist task. You will also notice that the test task's dependencies, such as compileTest are not executed either. Those dependencies of test that are required by another task, such as compile, are still executed.

By default, Gradle will abort execution and fail the build as soon as any task fails. This allows the build to complete sooner, but hides other failures that would have occurred. In order to discover as many failures as possible in a single build execution, you can use the --continue option.

When executed with --continue, Gradle will execute every task to be executed where all of the dependencies for that task completed without failure, instead of stopping as soon as the first failure is encountered. Each of the encountered failures will be reported at the end of the build.

If a task fails, any subsequent tasks that were depending on it will not be executed, as it is not safe to do so. For example, tests will not run if there is a compilation failure in the code under test; because the test task will depend on the compilation task (either directly or indirectly).

When you specify tasks on the command-line, you don't have to provide the full name of the task. You only need to provide enough of the task name to uniquely identify the task. For example, in the sample build above, you can execute task dist by running gradle d:

> gradle di
:compile
compiling source
:compileTest
compiling unit tests
:test
running unit tests
:dist
building the distribution

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

You can also abbreviate each word in a camel case task name. For example, you can execute task compileTest by running gradle compTest or even gradle cT

> gradle cT
:compile
compiling source
:compileTest
compiling unit tests

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

You can also use these abbreviations with the -x command-line option.

When you run the gradle command, it looks for a build file in the current directory. You can use the -b option to select another build file. If you use -b option then settings.gradle file is not used. Example:

task hello << {
    println "using build file '$buildFile.name' in '$buildFile.parentFile.name'."
}

> gradle -q -b subdir/myproject.gradle hello
using build file 'myproject.gradle' in 'subdir'.

Alternatively, you can use the -p option to specify the project directory to use. For multi-project builds you should use -p option instead of -b option.

> gradle -q -p subdir hello
using build file 'build.gradle' in 'subdir'.

Gradle provides several built-in tasks which show particular details of your build. This can be useful for understanding the structure and dependencies of your build, and for debugging problems.

In addition to the built-in tasks shown below, you can also use the project report plugin to add tasks to your project which will generate these reports.

> gradle -q projects

------------------------------------------------------------
Root project
------------------------------------------------------------

Root project 'projectReports'
+--- Project ':api' - The shared API for the application
\--- Project ':webapp' - The Web application implementation

To see a list of the tasks of a project, run gradle <project-path>:tasks
For example, try running gradle :api:tasks

description = 'The shared API for the application'

> gradle -q tasks

------------------------------------------------------------
All tasks runnable from root project
------------------------------------------------------------

Default tasks: dists

Build tasks
-----------
clean - Deletes the build directory (build)
dists - Builds the distribution
libs - Builds the JAR

Build Setup tasks
-----------------
init - Initializes a new Gradle build. [incubating]
wrapper - Generates Gradle wrapper files. [incubating]

Help tasks
----------
buildEnvironment - Displays all buildscript dependencies declared in root project 'projectReports'.
components - Displays the components produced by root project 'projectReports'. [incubating]
dependencies - Displays all dependencies declared in root project 'projectReports'.
dependencyInsight - Displays the insight into a specific dependency in root project 'projectReports'.
help - Displays a help message.
model - Displays the configuration model of root project 'projectReports'. [incubating]
projects - Displays the sub-projects of root project 'projectReports'.
properties - Displays the properties of root project 'projectReports'.
tasks - Displays the tasks runnable from root project 'projectReports' (some of the displayed tasks may belong to subprojects).

To see all tasks and more detail, run gradle tasks --all

To see more detail about a task, run gradle help --task <task>

dists {
    description = 'Builds the distribution'
    group = 'build'
}

> gradle -q tasks --all

------------------------------------------------------------
All tasks runnable from root project
------------------------------------------------------------

Default tasks: dists

Build tasks
-----------
clean - Deletes the build directory (build)
api:clean - Deletes the build directory (build)
webapp:clean - Deletes the build directory (build)
dists - Builds the distribution [api:libs, webapp:libs]
    docs - Builds the documentation
api:libs - Builds the JAR
    api:compile - Compiles the source files
webapp:libs - Builds the JAR [api:libs]
    webapp:compile - Compiles the source files

Build Setup tasks
-----------------
init - Initializes a new Gradle build. [incubating]
wrapper - Generates Gradle wrapper files. [incubating]

Help tasks
----------
buildEnvironment - Displays all buildscript dependencies declared in root project 'projectReports'.
api:buildEnvironment - Displays all buildscript dependencies declared in project ':api'.
webapp:buildEnvironment - Displays all buildscript dependencies declared in project ':webapp'.
components - Displays the components produced by root project 'projectReports'. [incubating]
api:components - Displays the components produced by project ':api'. [incubating]
webapp:components - Displays the components produced by project ':webapp'. [incubating]
dependencies - Displays all dependencies declared in root project 'projectReports'.
api:dependencies - Displays all dependencies declared in project ':api'.
webapp:dependencies - Displays all dependencies declared in project ':webapp'.
dependencyInsight - Displays the insight into a specific dependency in root project 'projectReports'.
api:dependencyInsight - Displays the insight into a specific dependency in project ':api'.
webapp:dependencyInsight - Displays the insight into a specific dependency in project ':webapp'.
help - Displays a help message.
api:help - Displays a help message.
webapp:help - Displays a help message.
model - Displays the configuration model of root project 'projectReports'. [incubating]
api:model - Displays the configuration model of project ':api'. [incubating]
webapp:model - Displays the configuration model of project ':webapp'. [incubating]
projects - Displays the sub-projects of root project 'projectReports'.
api:projects - Displays the sub-projects of project ':api'.
webapp:projects - Displays the sub-projects of project ':webapp'.
properties - Displays the properties of root project 'projectReports'.
api:properties - Displays the properties of project ':api'.
webapp:properties - Displays the properties of project ':webapp'.
tasks - Displays the tasks runnable from root project 'projectReports' (some of the displayed tasks may belong to subprojects).
api:tasks - Displays the tasks runnable from project ':api'.
webapp:tasks - Displays the tasks runnable from project ':webapp'.

> gradle -q help --task libs
Detailed task information for libs

Paths
     :api:libs
     :webapp:libs

Type
     Task (org.gradle.api.Task)

Description
     Builds the JAR

Group
     build

> gradle -q dependencies api:dependencies webapp:dependencies

------------------------------------------------------------
Root project
------------------------------------------------------------

No configurations

------------------------------------------------------------
Project :api - The shared API for the application
------------------------------------------------------------

compile
\--- org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:2.4.4

testCompile
\--- junit:junit:4.12
     \--- org.hamcrest:hamcrest-core:1.3

------------------------------------------------------------
Project :webapp - The Web application implementation
------------------------------------------------------------

compile
+--- project :api
|    \--- org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:2.4.4
\--- commons-io:commons-io:1.2

testCompile
No dependencies

> gradle -q api:dependencies --configuration testCompile

------------------------------------------------------------
Project :api - The shared API for the application
------------------------------------------------------------

testCompile
\--- junit:junit:4.12
     \--- org.hamcrest:hamcrest-core:1.3

> gradle -q webapp:dependencyInsight --dependency groovy --configuration compile
org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:2.4.4
\--- project :api
     \--- compile

> gradle -q api:properties

------------------------------------------------------------
Project :api - The shared API for the application
------------------------------------------------------------

allprojects: [project ':api']
ant: org.gradle.api.internal.project.DefaultAntBuilder@12345
antBuilderFactory: org.gradle.api.internal.project.DefaultAntBuilderFactory@12345
artifacts: org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.dsl.DefaultArtifactHandler_Decorated@12345
asDynamicObject: org.gradle.api.internal.ExtensibleDynamicObject@12345
baseClassLoaderScope: org.gradle.api.internal.initialization.DefaultClassLoaderScope@12345
buildDir: /home/user/gradle/samples/userguide/tutorial/projectReports/api/build
buildFile: /home/user/gradle/samples/userguide/tutorial/projectReports/api/build.gradle

4.6.8. Profiling a build

The --profile command line option will record some useful timing information while your build is running and write a report to the build/reports/profile directory. The report will be named using the time when the build was run.

This report lists summary times and details for both the configuration phase and task execution. The times for configuration and task execution are sorted with the most expensive operations first. The task execution results also indicate if any tasks were skipped (and the reason) or if tasks that were not skipped did no work.

Builds which utilize a buildSrc directory will generate a second profile report for buildSrc in the buildSrc/build directory.

Sometimes you are interested in which tasks are executed in which order for a given set of tasks specified on the command line, but you don't want the tasks to be executed. You can use the -m option for this. For example, if you run “gradle -m clean compile”, you'll see all the tasks that would be executed as part of the clean and compile tasks. This is complementary to the tasks task, which shows you the tasks which are available for execution.

In this chapter, you have seen some of the things you can do with Gradle from the command-line. You can find out more about the gradle command in Appendix D, Gradle Command Line.

If a Gradle project has set up the Wrapper (and we recommend all projects do so), you can execute the build using one of the following commands from the root of the project:

Each Wrapper is tied to a specific version of Gradle, so when you first run one of the commands above for a given Gradle version, it will download the corresponding Gradle distribution and use it to execute the build.

Not only does this mean that you don’t have to manually install Gradle yourself, but you are also sure to use the version of Gradle that the build is designed for. This makes your historical builds more reliable. Just use the appropriate syntax from above whenever you see a command line starting with gradle ... in the user guide, on Stack Overflow, in articles or wherever.

For completeness sake, and to ensure you don’t delete any important files, here are the files and directories in a Gradle project that make up the Wrapper:

If you’re wondering where the Gradle distributions are stored, you’ll find them in your user home directory under $USER_HOME/.gradle/wrapper/dists.

The Wrapper is something you should check into version control. By distributing the Wrapper with your project, anyone can work with it without needing to install Gradle beforehand. Even better, users of the build are guaranteed to use the version of Gradle that the build was designed to work with. Of course, this is also great for continuous integration servers (i.e. servers that regularly build your project) as it requires no configuration on the server.

You install the Wrapper into your project by running the wrapper task. (This task is always available, even if you don't add it to your build). To specify a Gradle version use --gradle-version on the command-line. You can also set the URL to download Gradle from directly via --gradle-distribution-url. If no version or distribution URL is specified, the Wrapper will be configured to use the gradle version the wrapper task is executed with. So if you run the wrapper task with Gradle 2.4, then the Wrapper configuration will default to version 2.4.

> gradle wrapper --gradle-version 2.0
:wrapper

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

The Wrapper can be further customized by adding and configuring a Wrapper task in your build script, and then executing it.

task wrapper(type: Wrapper) {
    gradleVersion = '2.0'
}

After such an execution you find the following new or updated files in your project directory (in case the default configuration of the Wrapper task is used).

simple/
  gradlew
  gradlew.bat
  gradle/wrapper/
    gradle-wrapper.jar
    gradle-wrapper.properties

All of these files should be submitted to your version control system. This only needs to be done once. After these files have been added to the project, the project should then be built with the added gradlew command. The gradlew command can be used exactly the same way as the gradle command.

If you want to switch to a new version of Gradle you don't need to rerun the wrapper task. It is good enough to change the respective entry in the gradle-wrapper.properties file, but if you want to take advantage of new functionality in the Gradle wrapper, then you would need to regenerate the wrapper files.

If you run Gradle with gradlew, the Wrapper checks if a Gradle distribution for the Wrapper is available. If so, it delegates to the gradle command of this distribution with all the arguments passed originally to the gradlew command. If it didn't find a Gradle distribution, it will download it first.

When you configure the Wrapper task, you can specify the Gradle version you wish to use. The gradlew command will download the appropriate distribution from the Gradle repository. Alternatively, you can specify the download URL of the Gradle distribution. The gradlew command will use this URL to download the distribution. If you specified neither a Gradle version nor download URL, the gradlew command will download whichever version of Gradle was used to generate the Wrapper files.

For the details on how to configure the Wrapper, see the Wrapper class in the API documentation.

If you don't want any download to happen when your project is built via gradlew, simply add the Gradle distribution zip to your version control at the location specified by your Wrapper configuration. A relative URL is supported - you can specify a distribution file relative to the location of gradle-wrapper.properties file.

If you build via the Wrapper, any existing Gradle distribution installed on the machine is ignored.

The Gradle Wrapper allows for verification of the downloaded Gradle distribution via SHA-256 hash sum comparison. This increases security against targeted attacks by preventing a man-in-the-middle attacker from tampering with the downloaded Gradle distribution.

To enable this feature you'll want to first calculate the SHA-256 hash of a known Gradle distribution. You can generate a SHA-256 hash from Linux and OSX or Windows (via Cygwin) with the shasum command.

> shasum -a 256 gradle-2.4-all.zip
371cb9fbebbe9880d147f59bab36d61eee122854ef8c9ee1ecf12b82368bcf10  gradle-2.4-all.zip

Add the returned hash sum to the gradle-wrapper.properties using the distributionSha256Sum property.

distributionSha256Sum=371cb9fbebbe9880d147f59bab36d61eee122854ef8c9ee1ecf12b82368bcf10

The Wrapper task adds appropriate file permissions to allow the execution of the gradlew *NIX command. Subversion preserves this file permission. We are not sure how other version control systems deal with this. What should always work is to execute “sh gradlew”.

The Gradle Daemon is not enabled by default, but we do recommend always enabling it for developers’ machines (but leaving it disabled for continuous integration servers). There are several ways to enable the Daemon, but the most common one is to add the line

org.gradle.daemon=true

to the file «USER_HOME»/.gradle/gradle.properties, where «USER_HOME» is your home directory. That’s typically one of the following, depending on your platform:

If that file doesn’t exist, just create it using a text editor. You can find details of other ways to enable (and disable) the Daemon in the FAQ further down. That section also contains more detailed information on how the Daemon works.

Once you have globally enabled the Daemon in this way, all your builds will take advantage of the speed boost, regardless of the version of Gradle a particular build uses.

As mentioned, the Daemon is a background process. You needn’t worry about a build up of Gradle processes on your machine, though: every Daemon stops after 3 hours of inactivity. If you want to explicitly stop a Daemon process for any reason, just use the command gradle --stop.

This will terminate all Daemon processes that were started with the same version of Gradle used to execute the command. If you have the Java Development Kit (JDK) installed, you can easily verify that a Daemon has stopped by running the jps command. You’ll see any running Daemons listed with the name GradleDaemon.

It is recommended that the Daemon is used in all developer environments. It is recommend to not enable the Daemon for Continuous Integration and build server environments.

The Daemon enables faster builds, which is particularly important when a human is sitting in front of the build. For CI builds, stability and predictability is of utmost importance. Using a fresh runtime (i.e. process) for each build is more reliable as the runtime is completely isolated from previous builds.

The Gradle Tooling API (see Chapter 13, Embedding Gradle), that is used by IDEs and other tools to integrate with Gradle, always use the Gradle Daemon to execute builds. If you are executing Gradle builds from within you're IDE you are using the Gradle Daemon and do not need to enable it for your environment.

However, unless you have explicitly enabled the Gradle Daemon for you environment your builds from the command line will not use the Gradle Daemon.

The Gradle Daemon is a long lived build process. In between builds it waits idly for the next build. This has the obvious benefit of only requiring Gradle to be loaded into memory once for multiple builds, as opposed to once for each build. This in itself is a significant performance optimization, but that's not where it stops.

A significant part of the story for modern JVM performance is runtime code optimization. For example, HotSpot (the JVM implementation provided by Oracle and used as the basis of OpenJDK) applies optimization to code while it is running. The optimization is progressive and not instantaneous. That is, the code is progressively optimized during execution which means that subsequent builds can be faster purely due to this optimization process. Experiments with HotSpot have shown that it takes somewhere between 5 and 10 builds for optimization to stabilize. The difference in perceived build time between the first build and the 10th for a Daemon can be quite dramatic.

The Daemon also allows more effective in memory caching across builds. For example, the classes needed by the build (e.g. plugins, build scripts) can be held in memory between builds. Similarly, Gradle can maintain in-memory caches of build data such as the hashes of task inputs and outputs, used for incremental building.

Very roughly, dependency management is made up of two pieces. Firstly, Gradle needs to know about the things that your project needs to build or run, in order to find them. We call these incoming files the dependencies of the project. Secondly, Gradle needs to build and upload the things that your project produces. We call these outgoing files the publications of the project. Let's look at these two pieces in more detail:

Most projects are not completely self-contained. They need files built by other projects in order to be compiled or tested and so on. For example, in order to use Hibernate in my project, I need to include some Hibernate jars in the classpath when I compile my source. To run my tests, I might also need to include some additional jars in the test classpath, such as a particular JDBC driver or the Ehcache jars.

These incoming files form the dependencies of the project. Gradle allows you to tell it what the dependencies of your project are, so that it can take care of finding these dependencies, and making them available in your build. The dependencies might need to be downloaded from a remote Maven or Ivy repository, or located in a local directory, or may need to be built by another project in the same multi-project build. We call this process dependency resolution.

Note that this feature provides a major advantage over Ant. With Ant, you only have the ability to specify absolute or relative paths to specific jars to load. With Gradle, you simply declare the “names” of your dependencies, and other layers determine where to get those dependencies from. You can get similar behavior from Ant by adding Apache Ivy, but Gradle does it better.

Often, the dependencies of a project will themselves have dependencies. For example, Hibernate core requires several other libraries to be present on the classpath with it runs. So, when Gradle runs the tests for your project, it also needs to find these dependencies and make them available. We call these transitive dependencies.

The main purpose of most projects is to build some files that are to be used outside the project. For example, if your project produces a Java library, you need to build a jar, and maybe a source jar and some documentation, and publish them somewhere.

These outgoing files form the publications of the project. Gradle also takes care of this important work for you. You declare the publications of your project, and Gradle take care of building them and publishing them somewhere. Exactly what “publishing” means depends on what you want to do. You might want to copy the files to a local directory, or upload them to a remote Maven or Ivy repository. Or you might use the files in another project in the same multi-project build. We call this process publication.

Let's look at some dependency declarations. Here's a basic build script:

apply plugin: 'java'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    compile group: 'org.hibernate', name: 'hibernate-core', version: '3.6.7.Final'
    testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.+'
}

What's going on here? This build script says a few things about the project. Firstly, it states that Hibernate core 3.6.7.Final is required to compile the project's production source. By implication, Hibernate core and its dependencies are also required at runtime. The build script also states that any junit >= 4.0 is required to compile the project's tests. It also tells Gradle to look in the Maven central repository for any dependencies that are required. The following sections go into the details.

In Gradle dependencies are grouped into configurations. A configuration is simply a named set of dependencies. We will refer to them as dependency configurations. You can use them to declare the external dependencies of your project. As we will see later, they are also used to declare the publications of your project.

The Java plugin defines a number of standard configurations. These configurations represent the classpaths that the Java plugin uses. Some are listed below, and you can find more details in Table 45.5, “Java plugin - dependency configurations”.

Various plugins add further standard configurations. You can also define your own custom configurations to use in your build. Please see Section 23.3, “Dependency configurations” for the details of defining and customizing dependency configurations.

There are various types of dependencies that you can declare. One such type is an external dependency. This is a dependency on some files built outside the current build, and stored in a repository of some kind, such as Maven central, or a corporate Maven or Ivy repository, or a directory in the local file system.

To define an external dependency, you add it to a dependency configuration:

dependencies {
    compile group: 'org.hibernate', name: 'hibernate-core', version: '3.6.7.Final'
}

An external dependency is identified using group, name and version attributes. Depending on which kind of repository you are using, group and version may be optional.

The shortcut form for declaring external dependencies looks like “group:name:version”.

dependencies {
    compile 'org.hibernate:hibernate-core:3.6.7.Final'
}

To find out more about defining and working with dependencies, have a look at Section 23.4, “How to declare your dependencies”.

How does Gradle find the files for external dependencies? Gradle looks for them in a repository. A repository is really just a collection of files, organized by group, name and version. Gradle understands several different repository formats, such as Maven and Ivy, and several different ways of accessing the repository, such as using the local file system or HTTP.

By default, Gradle does not define any repositories. You need to define at least one before you can use external dependencies. One option is use the Maven central repository:

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

Or a remote Maven repository:

repositories {
    maven {
        url "http://repo.mycompany.com/maven2"
    }
}

Or a remote Ivy repository:

repositories {
    ivy {
        url "http://repo.mycompany.com/repo"
    }
}

You can also have repositories on the local file system. This works for both Maven and Ivy repositories.

repositories {
    ivy {
        // URL can refer to a local directory
        url "../local-repo"
    }
}

A project can have multiple repositories. Gradle will look for a dependency in each repository in the order they are specified, stopping at the first repository that contains the requested module.

To find out more about defining and working with repositories, have a look at Section 23.6, “Repositories”.

Dependency configurations are also used to publish files.^[2] We call these files publication artifacts, or usually just artifacts.

The plugins do a pretty good job of defining the artifacts of a project, so you usually don't need to do anything special to tell Gradle what needs to be published. However, you do need to tell Gradle where to publish the artifacts. You do this by attaching repositories to the uploadArchives task. Here's an example of publishing to a remote Ivy repository:

uploadArchives {
    repositories {
        ivy {
            credentials {
                username "username"
                password "pw"
            }
            url "http://repo.mycompany.com"
        }
    }
}

Now, when you run gradle uploadArchives, Gradle will build and upload your Jar. Gradle will also generate and upload an ivy.xml as well.

You can also publish to Maven repositories. The syntax is slightly different.^[3] Note that you also need to apply the Maven plugin in order to publish to a Maven repository. when this is in place, Gradle will generate and upload a pom.xml.

apply plugin: 'maven'

uploadArchives {
    repositories {
        mavenDeployer {
            repository(url: "file://localhost/tmp/myRepo/")
        }
    }
}

To find out more about publication, have a look at Chapter 30, Publishing artifacts.

For all the details of dependency resolution, see Chapter 23, Dependency Management, and for artifact publication see Chapter 30, Publishing artifacts.

If you are interested in the DSL elements mentioned here, have a look at Project.configurations{}, Project.repositories{} and Project.dependencies{}.

Otherwise, continue on to some of the other tutorials.

Such builds come in all shapes and sizes, but they do have some common characteristics:

The settings.gradle file tells Gradle how the project and subprojects are structured. Fortunately, you don’t have to read this file simply to learn what the project structure is as you can run the command gradle projects. Here's the output from using that command on the Java multiproject build in the Gradle samples:

> gradle -q projects

------------------------------------------------------------
Root project
------------------------------------------------------------

Root project 'multiproject'
+--- Project ':api'
+--- Project ':services'
|    +--- Project ':services:shared'
|    \--- Project ':services:webservice'
\--- Project ':shared'

To see a list of the tasks of a project, run gradle <project-path>:tasks
For example, try running gradle :api:tasks

This tells you that multiproject has three immediate child projects: api, services and shared. The services project then has its own children, shared and webservice. These map to the directory structure, so it’s easy to find them. For example, you can find webservice in <root>/services/webservice.

Each project will usually have its own build file, but that's not necessarily the case. In the above example, the services project is just a container or grouping of other subprojects. There is no build file in the corresponding directory. However, multiproject does have one for the root project.

The root build.gradle is often used to share common configuration between the child projects, for example by applying the same sets of plugins and dependencies to all the child projects. It can also be used to configure individual subprojects when it is preferable to have all the configuration in one place. This means you should always check the root build file when discovering how a particular subproject is being configured.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the build files might not be called build.gradle. Many projects will name the build files after the subproject names, such as api.gradle and services.gradle from the previous example. Such an approach helps a lot in IDEs because it’s tough to work out which build.gradle file out of twenty possibilities is the one you want to open. This little piece of magic is handled by the settings.gradle file, but as a build user you don’t need to know the details of how it’s done. Just have a look through the child project directories to find the files with the .gradle suffix.

Once you know what subprojects are available, the key question for a build user is how to execute the tasks within the project.

From a user's perspective, multi-project builds are still collections of tasks you can run. The difference is that you may want to control which project's tasks get executed. You have two options here:

The first approach is similar to the single-project use case, but Gradle works slightly differently in the case of a multi-project build. The command gradle test will execute the test task in any subprojects, relative to the current working directory, that have that task. So if you run the command from the root project directory, you’ll run test in api, shared, services:shared and services:webservice. If you run the command from the services project directory, you’ll only execute the task in services:shared and services:webservice.

For more control over what gets executed, use qualified names (the second approach mentioned). These are paths just like directory paths, but use ‘:’ instead of ‘/’ or ‘\’. If the path begins with a ‘:’, then the path is resolved relative to the root project. In other words, the leading ‘:’ represents the root project itself. All other colons are path separators.

This approach works for any task, so if you want to know what tasks are in a particular subproject, just use the tasks task, e.g. gradle :services:webservice:tasks .

Regardless of which technique you use to execute tasks, Gradle will take care of building any subprojects that the target depends on. You don’t have to worry about the inter-project dependencies yourself. If you’re interested in how this is configured, you can read about writing multi-project builds later in the user guide.

There’s one last thing to note. When you’re using the Gradle wrapper, the first approach doesn’t work well because you have to specify the path to the wrapper script if you’re not in the project root. For example, if you’re in the webservice subproject directory, you would have to run ../../gradlew build.

That’s all you really need to know about multi-project builds as a build user. You can now identify whether a build is a multi-project one and you can discover its structure. And finally, you can execute tasks within specific subprojects.

A continuous build can be started by supplying either the --continuous or -t switches to Gradle, along with the list of tasks, switches and arguments that define the work to do. For example, gradle build --continuous. This will have the same effect as running gradle build, but instead of Gradle exiting when done, it will wait for changes to the build inputs. When a change occurs, gradle build will be automatically executed again and the process repeats.

If Gradle is attached to an interactive input source, such as a terminal, the continuous build can be exited by pressing CTRL-D (On Microsoft Windows, it is required to also press ENTER or RETURN after CTRL-D). If Gradle is not attached to an interactive input source (e.g. is running as part of a script), the build process must be terminated (e.g. using the kill command or similar). If the build is being executed via the Tooling API, the build can be cancelled using the Tooling API's cancellation mechanism.

At this time, only changes to task inputs are noticed. Gradle will start watching for changes just before the task starts to execute. No other changes will initiate a build. For example, changes to build scripts and build logic will not initiate build. Likewise, changes to files that are read during the configuration of the build, not the execution, will not initiate a build. In order to incorporate such changes, the continuous build must be restarted manually.

Consider a typical build using the Java plugin, using the conventional filesystem layout. The following diagram visualizes the task graph for gradle build:

Figure 9.1. Java plugin task graph

The following key tasks of the graph use files in the corresponding directories as inputs:

Assuming that the initial build is successful (i.e. the build task and its dependencies complete without error), changes to files in, or the addition/remove of files from, the locations listed above will initiate a new build. If a change is made to a Java source file in src/main/java, the build will fire and all tasks will be scheduled. Gradle's incremental build support ensures that only the tasks that are actually affected by the change are executed.

If the change to the main Java source causes compilation to fail, subsequent changes to the test source in src/test/java will not initiate a new build. As the test source depends on the main source, there is no point building until the main source has changed, potentially fixing the compilation error. After each build, only the inputs of the tasks that actually executed will be monitored for changes.

Continuous build is in no way coupled to compilation. It works for all types of tasks. For example, the processResources task copies and processes the files from src/main/resources for inclusion in the built JAR. As such, a change to any file in this directory will also initiate a build.

There are several issues to be aware with the current implementation of continuous build. These are likely to be addressed in future Gradle releases.

The Task Tree shows a hierarchical display of all projects and their tasks. Double clicking a task executes it.

There is also a filter so that uncommon tasks can be hidden. You can toggle the filter via the Filter button. Editing the filter allows you to configure which tasks and projects are shown. Hidden tasks show up in red. Note: newly created tasks will show up by default (versus being hidden by default).

The Task Tree context menu provides the following options:

The Favorites tab is a good place to store commonly-executed commands. These can be complex commands (anything that's legal to Gradle) and you can provide them with a display name. This is useful for creating, say, a custom build command that explicitly skips tests, documentation, and samples that you could call “fast build”.

You can reorder favorites to your liking and even export them to disk so they can imported by others. If you edit them, you are given options to “Always Show Live Output”. This only applies if you have “Only Show Output When Errors Occur”. This override always forces the output to be shown.

The Command Line tab is where you can execute a single Gradle command directly. Just enter whatever you would normally enter after 'gradle' on the command line. This also provides a place to try out commands before adding them to favorites.

The Setup tab allows configuration of some general settings.

Figure 10.2. GUI Setup

Gradle provides several options that make it easy to configure the Java process that will be used to execute your build. While it's possible to configure these in your local environment via GRADLE_OPTS or JAVA_OPTS, certain settings like JVM memory settings, Java home, daemon on/off can be more useful if they can be versioned with the project in your VCS so that the entire team can work with a consistent environment. Setting up a consistent environment for your build is as simple as placing these settings into a gradle.properties file. The configuration is applied in following order (if an option is configured in multiple locations the last one wins):

The following properties can be used to configure the Gradle build environment:

Gradle offers a variety of ways to add properties to your build. With the -D command line option you can pass a system property to the JVM which runs Gradle. The -D option of the gradle command has the same effect as the -D option of the java command.

You can also add properties to your project objects using properties files. You can place a gradle.properties file in the Gradle user home directory (defined by the “GRADLE_USER_HOME” environment variable, which if not set defaults to USER_HOME/.gradle) or in your project directory. For multi-project builds you can place gradle.properties files in any subproject directory. The properties set in a gradle.properties file can be accessed via the project object. The properties file in the user's home directory has precedence over property files in the project directories.

You can also add properties directly to your project object via the -P command line option.

Gradle can also set project properties when it sees specially-named system properties or environment variables. This feature is very useful when you don't have admin rights to a continuous integration server and you need to set property values that should not be easily visible, typically for security reasons. In that situation, you can't use the -P option, and you can't change the system-level configuration files. The correct strategy is to change the configuration of your continuous integration build job, adding an environment variable setting that matches an expected pattern. This won't be visible to normal users on the system. ^[4]

If the environment variable name looks like ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_prop=somevalue, then Gradle will set a prop property on your project object, with the value of somevalue. Gradle also supports this for system properties, but with a different naming pattern, which looks like org.gradle.project.prop.

You can also set system properties in the gradle.properties file. If a property name in such a file has the prefix “systemProp.”, like “systemProp.propName”, then the property and its value will be set as a system property, without the prefix. In a multi project build, “systemProp.” properties set in any project except the root will be ignored. That is, only the root project's gradle.properties file will be checked for properties that begin with the “systemProp.” prefix.

gradlePropertiesProp=gradlePropertiesValue
sysProp=shouldBeOverWrittenBySysProp
envProjectProp=shouldBeOverWrittenByEnvProp
systemProp.system=systemValue

task printProps << {
    println commandLineProjectProp
    println gradlePropertiesProp
    println systemProjectProp
    println envProjectProp
    println System.properties['system']
}

> gradle -q -PcommandLineProjectProp=commandLineProjectPropValue -Dorg.gradle.project.systemProjectProp=systemPropertyValue printProps
commandLineProjectPropValue
gradlePropertiesValue
systemPropertyValue
envPropertyValue
systemValue

Configuring an HTTP proxy (for downloading dependencies, for example) is done via standard JVM system properties. These properties can be set directly in the build script; for example, setting the proxy host would be done with System.setProperty('http.proxyHost', 'www.somehost.org'). Alternatively, the properties can be specified in a gradle.properties file, either in the build's root directory or in the Gradle home directory.

systemProp.http.proxyHost=www.somehost.org
systemProp.http.proxyPort=8080
systemProp.http.proxyUser=userid
systemProp.http.proxyPassword=password
systemProp.http.nonProxyHosts=*.nonproxyrepos.com|localhost

There are separate settings for HTTPS.

systemProp.https.proxyHost=www.somehost.org
systemProp.https.proxyPort=8080
systemProp.https.proxyUser=userid
systemProp.https.proxyPassword=password
systemProp.https.nonProxyHosts=*.nonproxyrepos.com|localhost

We could not find a good overview for all possible proxy settings. One place to look are the constants in a file from the Ant project. Here's a link to the Subversion view. The other is a Networking Properties page from the JDK docs. If anyone knows of a better overview, please let us know via the mailing list.

If you are encountering problems, one of the first things to try is using the very latest release of Gradle. New versions of Gradle are released frequently with bug fixes and new features. The problem you are having may have been fixed in a new release.

If you are using the Gradle Daemon, try temporarily disabling the daemon (you can pass the command line switch --no-daemon). More information about troubleshooting the daemon process is located in Chapter 6, The Gradle Daemon.

The place to go for help with Gradle is http://forums.gradle.org. The Gradle Forums is the place where you can report problems and ask questions of the Gradle developers and other community members.

If something's not working for you, posting a question or problem report to the forums is the fastest way to get help. It's also the place to post improvement suggestions or new ideas. The development team frequently posts news items and announces releases via the forum, making it a great way to stay up to date with the latest Gradle developments.

The 1.0 milestone 3 release brought a new API called the tooling API, which you can use for embedding Gradle into your own custom software. This API allows you to execute and monitor builds, and to query Gradle about the details of a build. The main audience for this API will be IDEs, CI servers, other UI authors, or integration testing of your Gradle plugins. However, it is open for anyone who needs to embed Gradle in their application.

A fundamental characteristic of the tooling API is that it operates in a version independent way. This means that you can use the same API to work with different target versions of Gradle. The tooling API is Gradle wrapper aware and, by default, uses the same target Gradle version as that used by the wrapper-powered project.

Some features that the tooling API provides today:

In the future we may support other interesting features:

Please take a look at Chapter 6, The Gradle Daemon. The Tooling API uses the daemon all the time. In fact, you cannot officially use the Tooling API without the daemon. This means that subsequent calls to the Tooling API, be it model building requests or task executing requests can be executed in the same long-living process. Chapter 6, The Gradle Daemon contains more details about the daemon, specifically information on situations when new daemons are forked.

As the tooling API is an interface for developers, the Javadoc is the main documentation for it. This is exactly our intention - we don't expect this chapter to grow very much. Instead we will add more code samples and improve the Javadoc documentation. The main entry point to the tooling API is the GradleConnector. You can navigate from there to find code samples and other instructions. Another very important set of resources are the samples that live in “$gradleHome/samples/toolingApi”. These samples also specify all of the required dependencies for the Tooling API, along with the suggested repositories to obtain the jars from.

Everything in Gradle sits on top of two basic concepts: projects and tasks.

Every Gradle build is made up of one or more projects. What a project represents depends on what it is that you are doing with Gradle. For example, a project might represent a library JAR or a web application. It might represent a distribution ZIP assembled from the JARs produced by other projects. A project does not necessarily represent a thing to be built. It might represent a thing to be done, such as deploying your application to staging or production environments. Don't worry if this seems a little vague for now. Gradle's build-by-convention support adds a more concrete definition for what a project is.

Each project is made up of one or more tasks. A task represents some atomic piece of work which a build performs. This might be compiling some classes, creating a JAR, generating Javadoc, or publishing some archives to a repository.

For now, we will look at defining some simple tasks in a build with one project. Later chapters will look at working with multiple projects and more about working with projects and tasks.

You run a Gradle build using the gradle command. The gradle command looks for a file called build.gradle in the current directory. ^[5] We call this build.gradle file a build script, although strictly speaking it is a build configuration script, as we will see later. The build script defines a project and its tasks.

To try this out, create the following build script named build.gradle.

task hello {
    doLast {
        println 'Hello world!'
    }
}

In a command-line shell, move to the containing directory and execute the build script with gradle -q hello:

> gradle -q hello
Hello world!

What's going on here? This build script defines a single task, called hello, and adds an action to it. When you run gradle hello, Gradle executes the hello task, which in turn executes the action you've provided. The action is simply a closure containing some Groovy code to execute.

If you think this looks similar to Ant's targets, you would be right. Gradle tasks are the equivalent to Ant targets, but as you will see, they are much more powerful. We have used a different terminology than Ant as we think the word task is more expressive than the word target. Unfortunately this introduces a terminology clash with Ant, as Ant calls its commands, such as javac or copy, tasks. So when we talk about tasks, we always mean Gradle tasks, which are the equivalent to Ant's targets. If we talk about Ant tasks (Ant commands), we explicitly say Ant task.

There is a shorthand way to define a task like our hello task above, which is more concise.

task hello << {
    println 'Hello world!'
}

Again, this defines a task called hello with a single closure to execute. We will use this task definition style throughout the user guide.

Gradle's build scripts give you the full power of Groovy. As an appetizer, have a look at this:

task upper << {
    String someString = 'mY_nAmE'
    println "Original: " + someString 
    println "Upper case: " + someString.toUpperCase()
}

> gradle -q upper
Original: mY_nAmE
Upper case: MY_NAME

or

task count << {
    4.times { print "$it " }
}

> gradle -q count
0 1 2 3 

As you probably have guessed, you can declare tasks that depend on other tasks.

task hello << {
    println 'Hello world!'
}
task intro(dependsOn: hello) << {
    println "I'm Gradle"
}

> gradle -q intro
Hello world!
I'm Gradle

To add a dependency, the corresponding task does not need to exist.

task taskX(dependsOn: 'taskY') << {
    println 'taskX'
}
task taskY << {
    println 'taskY'
}

> gradle -q taskX
taskY
taskX

The dependency of taskX to taskY is declared before taskY is defined. This is very important for multi-project builds. Task dependencies are discussed in more detail in Section 17.4, “Adding dependencies to a task”.

Please notice that you can't use shortcut notation (see Section 14.8, “Shortcut notations”) when referring to a task that is not yet defined.

The power of Groovy can be used for more than defining what a task does. For example, you can also use it to dynamically create tasks.

4.times { counter ->
    task "task$counter" << {
        println "I'm task number $counter"
    }
}

> gradle -q task1
I'm task number 1

Once tasks are created they can be accessed via an API. For instance, you could use this to dynamically add dependencies to a task, at runtime. Ant doesn't allow anything like this.

4.times { counter ->
    task "task$counter" << {
        println "I'm task number $counter"
    }
}
task0.dependsOn task2, task3

> gradle -q task0
I'm task number 2
I'm task number 3
I'm task number 0

Or you can add behavior to an existing task.

task hello << {
    println 'Hello Earth'
}
hello.doFirst {
    println 'Hello Venus'
}
hello.doLast {
    println 'Hello Mars'
}
hello << {
    println 'Hello Jupiter'
}

> gradle -q hello
Hello Venus
Hello Earth
Hello Mars
Hello Jupiter

The calls doFirst and doLast can be executed multiple times. They add an action to the beginning or the end of the task's actions list. When the task executes, the actions in the action list are executed in order. The << operator is simply an alias for doLast.

As you might have noticed in the previous examples, there is a convenient notation for accessing an existing task. Each task is available as a property of the build script:

task hello << {
    println 'Hello world!'
}
hello.doLast {
    println "Greetings from the $hello.name task."
}

> gradle -q hello
Hello world!
Greetings from the hello task.

This enables very readable code, especially when using the tasks provided by the plugins, like the compile task.

You can add your own properties to a task. To add a property named myProperty, set ext.myProperty to an initial value. From that point on, the property can be read and set like a predefined task property.

task myTask {
    ext.myProperty = "myValue"
}

task printTaskProperties << {
    println myTask.myProperty
}

> gradle -q printTaskProperties
myValue

Ant tasks are first-class citizens in Gradle. Gradle provides excellent integration for Ant tasks by simply relying on Groovy. Groovy is shipped with the fantastic AntBuilder. Using Ant tasks from Gradle is as convenient and more powerful than using Ant tasks from a build.xml file. From the example below, you can learn how to execute Ant tasks and how to access Ant properties:

task loadfile << {
    def files = file('../antLoadfileResources').listFiles().sort()
    files.each { File file ->
        if (file.isFile()) {
            ant.loadfile(srcFile: file, property: file.name)
            println " *** $file.name ***"
            println "${ant.properties[file.name]}"
        }
    }
}

> gradle -q loadfile
 *** agile.manifesto.txt ***
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration  over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
 *** gradle.manifesto.txt ***
Make the impossible possible, make the possible easy and make the easy elegant.
(inspired by Moshe Feldenkrais)

There is lots more you can do with Ant in your build scripts. You can find out more in Chapter 19, Using Ant from Gradle.

Gradle scales in how you can organize your build logic. The first level of organizing your build logic for the example above, is extracting a method.

task checksum << {
    fileList('../antLoadfileResources').each {File file ->
        ant.checksum(file: file, property: "cs_$file.name")
        println "$file.name Checksum: ${ant.properties["cs_$file.name"]}"
    }
}

task loadfile << {
    fileList('../antLoadfileResources').each {File file ->
        ant.loadfile(srcFile: file, property: file.name)
        println "I'm fond of $file.name"
    }
}

File[] fileList(String dir) {
    file(dir).listFiles({file -> file.isFile() } as FileFilter).sort()
}

> gradle -q loadfile
I'm fond of agile.manifesto.txt
I'm fond of gradle.manifesto.txt

Later you will see that such methods can be shared among subprojects in multi-project builds. If your build logic becomes more complex, Gradle offers you other very convenient ways to organize it. We have devoted a whole chapter to this. See Chapter 41, Organizing Build Logic.

Gradle allows you to define one or more default tasks that are executed if no other tasks are specified.

defaultTasks 'clean', 'run'

task clean << {
    println 'Default Cleaning!'
}

task run << {
    println 'Default Running!'
}

task other << {
    println "I'm not a default task!"
}

> gradle -q
Default Cleaning!
Default Running!

This is equivalent to running gradle clean run. In a multi-project build every subproject can have its own specific default tasks. If a subproject does not specify default tasks, the default tasks of the parent project are used (if defined).

As we later describe in full detail (see Chapter 20, The Build Lifecycle), Gradle has a configuration phase and an execution phase. After the configuration phase, Gradle knows all tasks that should be executed. Gradle offers you a hook to make use of this information. A use-case for this would be to check if the release task is among the tasks to be executed. Depending on this, you can assign different values to some variables.

In the following example, execution of the distribution and release tasks results in different value of the version variable.

task distribution << {
    println "We build the zip with version=$version"
}

task release(dependsOn: 'distribution') << {
    println 'We release now'
}

gradle.taskGraph.whenReady {taskGraph ->
    if (taskGraph.hasTask(release)) {
        version = '1.0'
    } else {
        version = '1.0-SNAPSHOT'
    }
}

> gradle -q distribution
We build the zip with version=1.0-SNAPSHOT

> gradle -q release
We build the zip with version=1.0
We release now

The important thing is that whenReady affects the release task before the release task is executed. This works even when the release task is not the primary task (i.e., the task passed to the gradle command).

In this chapter, we have had a first look at tasks. But this is not the end of the story for tasks. If you want to jump into more of the details, have a look at Chapter 17, More about Tasks.

Otherwise, continue on to the tutorials in Chapter 44, Java Quickstart and Chapter 7, Dependency Management Basics.

The plugin adds the following tasks to the project:

The init supports different build setup types. The type is specified by supplying a --type argument value. For example, to create a Java library project simply execute: gradle init --type java-library.

If a --type parameter is not supplied, Gradle will attempt to infer the type from the environment. For example, it will infer a type value of “pom” if it finds a pom.xml to convert to a Gradle build.

If the type could not be inferred, the type “basic” will be used.

All build setup types include the setup of the Gradle Wrapper.

Gradle provides a domain specific language, or DSL, for describing builds. This build language is based on Groovy, with some additions to make it easier to describe a build.

A build script can contain any Groovy language element. ^[6] Gradle assumes that each build script is encoded using UTF-8.

In the tutorial in Chapter 44, Java Quickstart we used, for example, the apply() method. Where does this method come from? We said earlier that the build script defines a project in Gradle. For each project in the build, Gradle creates an object of type Project and associates this Project object with the build script. As the build script executes, it configures this Project object:

Let's try this out and try to access the name property of the Project object.

println name
println project.name

> gradle -q check
projectApi
projectApi

Both println statements print out the same property. The first uses auto-delegation to the Project object, for properties not defined in the build script. The other statement uses the project property available to any build script, which returns the associated Project object. Only if you define a property or a method which has the same name as a member of the Project object, would you need to use the project property.

When Gradle executes a script, it compiles the script into a class which implements Script. This means that all of the properties and methods declared by the Script interface are available in your script.

There are two kinds of variables that can be declared in a build script: local variables and extra properties.

def dest = "dest"

task copy(type: Copy) {
    from "source"
    into dest
}

apply plugin: "java"

ext {
    springVersion = "3.1.0.RELEASE"
    emailNotification = "build@master.org"
}

sourceSets.all { ext.purpose = null }

sourceSets {
    main {
        purpose = "production"
    }
    test {
        purpose = "test"
    }
    plugin {
        purpose = "production"
    }
}

task printProperties << {
    println springVersion
    println emailNotification
    sourceSets.matching { it.purpose == "production" }.each { println it.name }
}

> gradle -q printProperties
3.1.0.RELEASE
build@master.org
main
plugin

You can configure arbitrary objects in the following very readable way.

task configure << {
    def pos = configure(new java.text.FieldPosition(10)) {
        beginIndex = 1
        endIndex = 5
    }
    println pos.beginIndex
    println pos.endIndex
}

> gradle -q configure
1
5

You can also configure arbitrary objects using an external script.

task configure << {
    def pos = new java.text.FieldPosition(10)
    // Apply the script
    apply from: 'other.gradle', to: pos
    println pos.beginIndex
    println pos.endIndex
}

// Set properties.
beginIndex = 1
endIndex = 5

> gradle -q configure
1
5

The Groovy language provides plenty of features for creating DSLs, and the Gradle build language takes advantage of these. Understanding how the build language works will help you when you write your build script, and in particular, when you start to write custom plugins and tasks.

// Iterable gets an each() method
configurations.runtime.each { File f -> println f }

// Using a getter method
println project.buildDir
println getProject().getBuildDir()

// Using a setter method
project.buildDir = 'target'
getProject().setBuildDir('target')

test.systemProperty 'some.prop', 'value'
test.systemProperty('some.prop', 'value')

// List literal
test.includes = ['org/gradle/api/**', 'org/gradle/internal/**']

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>()
list.add('org/gradle/api/**')
list.add('org/gradle/internal/**')
test.includes = list

// Map literal.
Map<String, String> map = [key1:'value1', key2: 'value2']

// Groovy will coerce named arguments
// into a single map argument
apply plugin: 'java'

repositories {
    println "in a closure"
}
repositories() { println "in a closure" }
repositories({ println "in a closure" })

dependencies {
    assert delegate == project.dependencies
    testCompile('junit:junit:4.12')
    delegate.testCompile('junit:junit:4.12')
}

To make build scripts more concise, Gradle automatically adds a set of import statements to the Gradle scripts. This means that instead of using throw new org.gradle.api.tasks.StopExecutionException() you can just type throw new StopExecutionException() instead.

Listed below are the imports added to each script:

import org.gradle.*
import org.gradle.api.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.cache.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.component.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.dsl.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.ivy.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.maven.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.query.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.repositories.*
import org.gradle.api.artifacts.result.*
import org.gradle.api.component.*
import org.gradle.api.credentials.*
import org.gradle.api.distribution.*
import org.gradle.api.distribution.plugins.*
import org.gradle.api.dsl.*
import org.gradle.api.execution.*
import org.gradle.api.file.*
import org.gradle.api.initialization.*
import org.gradle.api.initialization.dsl.*
import org.gradle.api.invocation.*
import org.gradle.api.java.archives.*
import org.gradle.api.logging.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.announce.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.antlr.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.buildcomparison.gradle.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.jetty.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.osgi.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.quality.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.scala.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.sonar.*
import org.gradle.api.plugins.sonar.model.*
import org.gradle.api.publish.*
import org.gradle.api.publish.ivy.*
import org.gradle.api.publish.ivy.plugins.*
import org.gradle.api.publish.ivy.tasks.*
import org.gradle.api.publish.maven.*
import org.gradle.api.publish.maven.plugins.*
import org.gradle.api.publish.maven.tasks.*
import org.gradle.api.publish.plugins.*
import org.gradle.api.reporting.*
import org.gradle.api.reporting.components.*
import org.gradle.api.reporting.dependencies.*
import org.gradle.api.reporting.model.*
import org.gradle.api.reporting.plugins.*
import org.gradle.api.resources.*
import org.gradle.api.specs.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.ant.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.application.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.bundling.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.compile.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.diagnostics.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.incremental.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.javadoc.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.scala.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.testing.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.testing.junit.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.testing.testng.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.util.*
import org.gradle.api.tasks.wrapper.*
import org.gradle.authentication.*
import org.gradle.authentication.http.*
import org.gradle.buildinit.plugins.*
import org.gradle.buildinit.tasks.*
import org.gradle.external.javadoc.*
import org.gradle.ide.cdt.*
import org.gradle.ide.cdt.tasks.*
import org.gradle.ide.visualstudio.*
import org.gradle.ide.visualstudio.plugins.*
import org.gradle.ide.visualstudio.tasks.*
import org.gradle.ivy.*
import org.gradle.jvm.*
import org.gradle.jvm.application.scripts.*
import org.gradle.jvm.application.tasks.*
import org.gradle.jvm.platform.*
import org.gradle.jvm.plugins.*
import org.gradle.jvm.tasks.*
import org.gradle.jvm.tasks.api.*
import org.gradle.jvm.test.*
import org.gradle.jvm.toolchain.*
import org.gradle.language.assembler.*
import org.gradle.language.assembler.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.assembler.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.base.*
import org.gradle.language.base.artifact.*
import org.gradle.language.base.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.base.sources.*
import org.gradle.language.c.*
import org.gradle.language.c.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.c.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.coffeescript.*
import org.gradle.language.cpp.*
import org.gradle.language.cpp.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.cpp.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.java.*
import org.gradle.language.java.artifact.*
import org.gradle.language.java.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.java.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.javascript.*
import org.gradle.language.jvm.*
import org.gradle.language.jvm.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.jvm.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.nativeplatform.*
import org.gradle.language.nativeplatform.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.objectivec.*
import org.gradle.language.objectivec.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.objectivec.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.objectivecpp.*
import org.gradle.language.objectivecpp.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.objectivecpp.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.rc.*
import org.gradle.language.rc.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.rc.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.routes.*
import org.gradle.language.scala.*
import org.gradle.language.scala.plugins.*
import org.gradle.language.scala.tasks.*
import org.gradle.language.scala.toolchain.*
import org.gradle.language.twirl.*
import org.gradle.maven.*
import org.gradle.model.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.platform.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.plugins.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.tasks.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.test.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.test.cunit.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.test.cunit.plugins.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.test.cunit.tasks.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.test.googletest.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.test.googletest.plugins.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.test.plugins.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.test.tasks.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.toolchain.*
import org.gradle.nativeplatform.toolchain.plugins.*
import org.gradle.platform.base.*
import org.gradle.platform.base.binary.*
import org.gradle.platform.base.component.*
import org.gradle.platform.base.plugins.*
import org.gradle.play.*
import org.gradle.play.distribution.*
import org.gradle.play.platform.*
import org.gradle.play.plugins.*
import org.gradle.play.tasks.*
import org.gradle.play.toolchain.*
import org.gradle.plugin.use.*
import org.gradle.plugins.ear.*
import org.gradle.plugins.ear.descriptor.*
import org.gradle.plugins.ide.api.*
import org.gradle.plugins.ide.eclipse.*
import org.gradle.plugins.ide.idea.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.base.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.coffeescript.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.envjs.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.envjs.browser.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.envjs.http.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.envjs.http.simple.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.jshint.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.rhino.*
import org.gradle.plugins.javascript.rhino.worker.*
import org.gradle.plugins.signing.*
import org.gradle.plugins.signing.signatory.*
import org.gradle.plugins.signing.signatory.pgp.*
import org.gradle.plugins.signing.type.*
import org.gradle.plugins.signing.type.pgp.*
import org.gradle.process.*
import org.gradle.sonar.runner.*
import org.gradle.sonar.runner.plugins.*
import org.gradle.sonar.runner.tasks.*
import org.gradle.testing.base.*
import org.gradle.testing.base.plugins.*
import org.gradle.testing.jacoco.plugins.*
import org.gradle.testing.jacoco.tasks.*
import org.gradle.testkit.runner.*
import org.gradle.util.*

We have already seen how to define tasks using a keyword style in Chapter 14, Build Script Basics. There are a few variations on this style, which you may need to use in certain situations. For example, the keyword style does not work in expressions.

task(hello) << {
    println "hello"
}

task(copy, type: Copy) {
    from(file('srcDir'))
    into(buildDir)
}

You can also use strings for the task names:

task('hello') <<
{
    println "hello"
}

task('copy', type: Copy) {
    from(file('srcDir'))
    into(buildDir)
}

There is an alternative syntax for defining tasks, which you may prefer to use:

tasks.create(name: 'hello') << {
    println "hello"
}

tasks.create(name: 'copy', type: Copy) {
    from(file('srcDir'))
    into(buildDir)
}

Here we add tasks to the tasks collection. Have a look at TaskContainer for more variations of the create() method.

You often need to locate the tasks that you have defined in the build file, for example, to configure them or use them for dependencies. There are a number of ways of doing this. Firstly, each task is available as a property of the project, using the task name as the property name:

task hello

println hello.name
println project.hello.name

Tasks are also available through the tasks collection.

task hello

println tasks.hello.name
println tasks['hello'].name

You can access tasks from any project using the task's path using the tasks.getByPath() method. You can call the getByPath() method with a task name, or a relative path, or an absolute path.

project(':projectA') {
    task hello
}

task hello

println tasks.getByPath('hello').path
println tasks.getByPath(':hello').path
println tasks.getByPath('projectA:hello').path
println tasks.getByPath(':projectA:hello').path

> gradle -q hello
:hello
:hello
:projectA:hello
:projectA:hello

Have a look at TaskContainer for more options for locating tasks.

As an example, let's look at the Copy task provided by Gradle. To create a Copy task for your build, you can declare in your build script:

task myCopy(type: Copy)

This creates a copy task with no default behavior. The task can be configured using its API (see Copy). The following examples show several different ways to achieve the same configuration.

Just to be clear, realize that the name of this task is “myCopy”, but it is of type “Copy”. You can have multiple tasks of the same type, but with different names. You'll find this gives you a lot of power to implement cross-cutting concerns across all tasks of a particular type.

Copy myCopy = task(myCopy, type: Copy)
myCopy.from 'resources'
myCopy.into 'target'
myCopy.include('**/*.txt', '**/*.xml', '**/*.properties')

This is similar to the way we would configure objects in Java. You have to repeat the context (myCopy) in the configuration statement every time. This is a redundancy and not very nice to read.

There is another way of configuring a task. It also preserves the context and it is arguably the most readable. It is usually our favorite.

task myCopy(type: Copy)

myCopy {
   from 'resources'
   into 'target'
   include('**/*.txt', '**/*.xml', '**/*.properties')
}

This works for any task. Line 3 of the example is just a shortcut for the tasks.getByName() method. It is important to note that if you pass a closure to the getByName() method, this closure is applied to configure the task, not when the task executes.

You can also use a configuration closure when you define a task.

task copy(type: Copy) {
   from 'resources'
   into 'target'
   include('**/*.txt', '**/*.xml', '**/*.properties')
}

There are several ways you can define the dependencies of a task. In Section 14.5, “Task dependencies” you were introduced to defining dependencies using task names. Task names can refer to tasks in the same project as the task, or to tasks in other projects. To refer to a task in another project, you prefix the name of the task with the path of the project it belongs to. The following is an example which adds a dependency from projectA:taskX to projectB:taskY:

project('projectA') {
    task taskX(dependsOn: ':projectB:taskY') << {
        println 'taskX'
    }
}

project('projectB') {
    task taskY << {
        println 'taskY'
    }
}

> gradle -q taskX
taskY
taskX

Instead of using a task name, you can define a dependency using a Task object, as shown in this example:

task taskX << {
    println 'taskX'
}

task taskY << {
    println 'taskY'
}

taskX.dependsOn taskY

> gradle -q taskX
taskY
taskX

For more advanced uses, you can define a task dependency using a closure. When evaluated, the closure is passed the task whose dependencies are being calculated. The closure should return a single Task or collection of Task objects, which are then treated as dependencies of the task. The following example adds a dependency from taskX to all the tasks in the project whose name starts with lib:

task taskX << {
    println 'taskX'
}

taskX.dependsOn {
    tasks.findAll { task -> task.name.startsWith('lib') }
}

task lib1 << {
    println 'lib1'
}

task lib2 << {
    println 'lib2'
}

task notALib << {
    println 'notALib'
}

> gradle -q taskX
lib1
lib2
taskX

For more information about task dependencies, see the Task API.

In some cases it is useful to control the order in which 2 tasks will execute, without introducing an explicit dependency between those tasks. The primary difference between a task ordering and a task dependency is that an ordering rule does not influence which tasks will be executed, only the order in which they will be executed.

Task ordering can be useful in a number of scenarios:

There are two ordering rules available: “must run after” and “should run after”.

When you use the “must run after” ordering rule you specify that taskB must always run after taskA, whenever both taskA and taskB will be run. This is expressed as taskB.mustRunAfter(taskA). The “should run after” ordering rule is similar but less strict as it will be ignored in two situations. Firstly if using that rule introduces an ordering cycle. Secondly when using parallel execution and all dependencies of a task have been satisfied apart from the “should run after” task, then this task will be run regardless of whether its “should run after” dependencies have been run or not. You should use “should run after” where the ordering is helpful but not strictly required.

With these rules present it is still possible to execute taskA without taskB and vice-versa.

task taskX << {
    println 'taskX'
}
task taskY << {
    println 'taskY'
}
taskY.mustRunAfter taskX

> gradle -q taskY taskX
taskX
taskY

task taskX << {
    println 'taskX'
}
task taskY << {
    println 'taskY'
}
taskY.shouldRunAfter taskX

> gradle -q taskY taskX
taskX
taskY

In the examples above, it is still possible to execute taskY without causing taskX to run:

> gradle -q taskY
taskY

To specify a “must run after” or “should run after” ordering between 2 tasks, you use the Task.mustRunAfter() and Task.shouldRunAfter() methods. These methods accept a task instance, a task name or any other input accepted by Task.dependsOn().

Note that “B.mustRunAfter(A)” or “B.shouldRunAfter(A)” does not imply any execution dependency between the tasks:

As mentioned before, the “should run after” ordering rule will be ignored if it introduces an ordering cycle:

task taskX << {
    println 'taskX'
}
task taskY << {
    println 'taskY'
}
task taskZ << {
    println 'taskZ'
}
taskX.dependsOn taskY
taskY.dependsOn taskZ
taskZ.shouldRunAfter taskX

> gradle -q taskX
taskZ
taskY
taskX

You can add a description to your task. This description is displayed when executing gradle tasks.

task copy(type: Copy) {
   description 'Copies the resource directory to the target directory.'
   from 'resources'
   into 'target'
   include('**/*.txt', '**/*.xml', '**/*.properties')
}

Sometimes you want to replace a task. For example, if you want to exchange a task added by the Java plugin with a custom task of a different type. You can achieve this with:

task copy(type: Copy)

task copy(overwrite: true) << {
    println('I am the new one.')
}

> gradle -q copy
I am the new one.

This will replace a task of type Copy with the task you've defined, because it uses the same name. When you define the new task, you have to set the overwrite property to true. Otherwise Gradle throws an exception, saying that a task with that name already exists.

Gradle offers multiple ways to skip the execution of a task.

task hello << {
    println 'hello world'
}

hello.onlyIf { !project.hasProperty('skipHello') }

> gradle hello -PskipHello
:hello SKIPPED

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

task compile << {
    println 'We are doing the compile.'
}

compile.doFirst {
    // Here you would put arbitrary conditions in real life.
    // But this is used in an integration test so we want defined behavior.
    if (true) { throw new StopExecutionException() }
}
task myTask(dependsOn: 'compile') << {
   println 'I am not affected'
}

> gradle -q myTask
I am not affected

task disableMe << {
    println 'This should not be printed if the task is disabled.'
}
disableMe.enabled = false

> gradle disableMe
:disableMe SKIPPED

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

If you are using one of the tasks that come with Gradle, such as a task added by the Java plugin, you might have noticed that Gradle will skip tasks that are up-to-date. This behaviour is also available for your tasks, not just for built-in tasks.

task transform {
    ext.srcFile = file('mountains.xml')
    ext.destDir = new File(buildDir, 'generated')
    doLast {
        println "Transforming source file."
        destDir.mkdirs()
        def mountains = new XmlParser().parse(srcFile)
        mountains.mountain.each { mountain ->
            def name = mountain.name[0].text()
            def height = mountain.height[0].text()
            def destFile = new File(destDir, "${name}.txt")
            destFile.text = "$name -> ${height}\n"
        }
    }
}

> gradle transform
:transform
Transforming source file.

> gradle transform
:transform
Transforming source file.

task transform {
    ext.srcFile = file('mountains.xml')
    ext.destDir = new File(buildDir, 'generated')
    inputs.file srcFile
    outputs.dir destDir
    doLast {
        println "Transforming source file."
        destDir.mkdirs()
        def mountains = new XmlParser().parse(srcFile)
        mountains.mountain.each { mountain ->
            def name = mountain.name[0].text()
            def height = mountain.height[0].text()
            def destFile = new File(destDir, "${name}.txt")
            destFile.text = "$name -> ${height}\n"
        }
    }
}

> gradle transform
:transform
Transforming source file.

> gradle transform
:transform UP-TO-DATE

Sometimes you want to have a task whose behavior depends on a large or infinite number value range of parameters. A very nice and expressive way to provide such tasks are task rules:

tasks.addRule("Pattern: ping<ID>") { String taskName ->
    if (taskName.startsWith("ping")) {
        task(taskName) << {
            println "Pinging: " + (taskName - 'ping')
        }
    }
}

> gradle -q pingServer1
Pinging: Server1

The String parameter is used as a description for the rule, which is shown with gradle tasks.

Rules are not only used when calling tasks from the command line. You can also create dependsOn relations on rule based tasks:

tasks.addRule("Pattern: ping<ID>") { String taskName ->
    if (taskName.startsWith("ping")) {
        task(taskName) << {
            println "Pinging: " + (taskName - 'ping')
        }
    }
}

task groupPing {
    dependsOn pingServer1, pingServer2
}

> gradle -q groupPing
Pinging: Server1
Pinging: Server2

If you run “gradle -q tasks” you won't find a task named “pingServer1” or “pingServer2”, but this script is executing logic based on the request to run those tasks.

Finalizer tasks are automatically added to the task graph when the finalized task is scheduled to run.

task taskX << {
    println 'taskX'
}
task taskY << {
    println 'taskY'
}

taskX.finalizedBy taskY

> gradle -q taskX
taskX
taskY

Finalizer tasks will be executed even if the finalized task fails.

task taskX << {
    println 'taskX'
    throw new RuntimeException()
}
task taskY << {
    println 'taskY'
}

taskX.finalizedBy taskY

> gradle -q taskX
taskX
taskY

On the other hand, finalizer tasks are not executed if the finalized task didn't do any work, for example if it is considered up to date or if a dependent task fails.

Finalizer tasks are useful in situations where the build creates a resource that has to be cleaned up regardless of the build failing or succeeding. An example of such a resource is a web container that is started before an integration test task and which should be always shut down, even if some of the tests fail.

To specify a finalizer task you use the Task.finalizedBy() method. This method accepts a task instance, a task name, or any other input accepted by Task.dependsOn().

If you are coming from Ant, an enhanced Gradle task like Copy seems like a cross between an Ant target and an Ant task. Although Ant's tasks and targets are really different entities, Gradle combines these notions into a single entity. Simple Gradle tasks are like Ant's targets, but enhanced Gradle tasks also include aspects of Ant tasks. All of Gradle's tasks share a common API and you can create dependencies between them. These tasks are much easier to configure than an Ant task. They make full use of the type system, and are more expressive and easier to maintain.

You can locate a file relative to the project directory using the Project.file() method.

// Using a relative path
File configFile = file('src/config.xml')

// Using an absolute path
configFile = file(configFile.absolutePath)

// Using a File object with a relative path
configFile = file(new File('src/config.xml'))

You can pass any object to the file() method, and it will attempt to convert the value to an absolute File object. Usually, you would pass it a String or File instance. If this path is an absolute path, it is used to construct a File instance. Otherwise, a File instance is constructed by prepending the project directory path to the supplied path. The file() method also understands URLs, such as file:/some/path.xml.

Using this method is a useful way to convert some user provided value into an absolute File. It is preferable to using new File(somePath), as file() always evaluates the supplied path relative to the project directory, which is fixed, rather than the current working directory, which can change depending on how the user runs Gradle.

A file collection is simply a set of files. It is represented by the FileCollection interface. Many objects in the Gradle API implement this interface. For example, dependency configurations implement FileCollection.

One way to obtain a FileCollection instance is to use the Project.files() method. You can pass this method any number of objects, which are then converted into a set of File objects. The files() method accepts any type of object as its parameters. These are evaluated relative to the project directory, as per the file() method, described in Section 18.1, “Locating files”. You can also pass collections, iterables, maps and arrays to the files() method. These are flattened and the contents converted to File instances.

FileCollection collection = files('src/file1.txt',
                                  new File('src/file2.txt'),
                                  ['src/file3.txt', 'src/file4.txt'])

A file collection is iterable, and can be converted to a number of other types using the as operator. You can also add 2 file collections together using the + operator, or subtract one file collection from another using the - operator. Here are some examples of what you can do with a file collection.

// Iterate over the files in the collection
collection.each {File file ->
    println file.name
}

// Convert the collection to various types
Set set = collection.files
Set set2 = collection as Set
List list = collection as List
String path = collection.asPath
File file = collection.singleFile
File file2 = collection as File

// Add and subtract collections
def union = collection + files('src/file3.txt')
def different = collection - files('src/file3.txt')

You can also pass the files() method a closure or a Callable instance. This is called when the contents of the collection are queried, and its return value is converted to a set of File instances. The return value can be an object of any of the types supported by the files() method. This is a simple way to 'implement' the FileCollection interface.

task list << {
    File srcDir

    // Create a file collection using a closure
    collection = files { srcDir.listFiles() }

    srcDir = file('src')
    println "Contents of $srcDir.name"
    collection.collect { relativePath(it) }.sort().each { println it }

    srcDir = file('src2')
    println "Contents of $srcDir.name"
    collection.collect { relativePath(it) }.sort().each { println it }
}

> gradle -q list
Contents of src
src/dir1
src/file1.txt
Contents of src2
src2/dir1
src2/dir2

Some other types of things you can pass to files():

It is important to note that the content of a file collection is evaluated lazily, when it is needed. This means you can, for example, create a FileCollection that represents files which will be created in the future by, say, some task.

A file tree is a collection of files arranged in a hierarchy. For example, a file tree might represent a directory tree or the contents of a ZIP file. It is represented by the FileTree interface. The FileTree interface extends FileCollection, so you can treat a file tree exactly the same way as you would a file collection. Several objects in Gradle implement the FileTree interface, such as source sets.

One way to obtain a FileTree instance is to use the Project.fileTree() method. This creates a FileTree defined with a base directory, and optionally some Ant-style include and exclude patterns.

// Create a file tree with a base directory
FileTree tree = fileTree(dir: 'src/main')

// Add include and exclude patterns to the tree
tree.include '**/*.java'
tree.exclude '**/Abstract*'

// Create a tree using path
tree = fileTree('src').include('**/*.java')

// Create a tree using closure
tree = fileTree('src') {
    include '**/*.java'
}

// Create a tree using a map
tree = fileTree(dir: 'src', include: '**/*.java')
tree = fileTree(dir: 'src', includes: ['**/*.java', '**/*.xml'])
tree = fileTree(dir: 'src', include: '**/*.java', exclude: '**/*test*/**')

You use a file tree in the same way you use a file collection. You can also visit the contents of the tree, and select a sub-tree using Ant-style patterns:

// Iterate over the contents of a tree
tree.each {File file ->
    println file
}

// Filter a tree
FileTree filtered = tree.matching {
    include 'org/gradle/api/**'
}

// Add trees together
FileTree sum = tree + fileTree(dir: 'src/test')

// Visit the elements of the tree
tree.visit {element ->
    println "$element.relativePath => $element.file"
}

You can use the contents of an archive, such as a ZIP or TAR file, as a file tree. You do this using the Project.zipTree() and Project.tarTree() methods. These methods return a FileTree instance which you can use like any other file tree or file collection. For example, you can use it to expand the archive by copying the contents, or to merge some archives into another.

// Create a ZIP file tree using path
FileTree zip = zipTree('someFile.zip')

// Create a TAR file tree using path
FileTree tar = tarTree('someFile.tar')

//tar tree attempts to guess the compression based on the file extension
//however if you must specify the compression explicitly you can:
FileTree someTar = tarTree(resources.gzip('someTar.ext'))

Many objects in Gradle have properties which accept a set of input files. For example, the JavaCompile task has a source property, which defines the source files to compile. You can set the value of this property using any of the types supported by the files() method, which was shown above. This means you can set the property using, for example, a File, String, collection, FileCollection or even a closure. Here are some examples:

Usually, there is a method with the same name as the property, which appends to the set of files. Again, this method accepts any of the types supported by the files() method.

task compile(type: JavaCompile)

// Use a File object to specify the source directory
compile {
    source = file('src/main/java')
}

// Use a String path to specify the source directory
compile {
    source = 'src/main/java'
}

// Use a collection to specify multiple source directories
compile {
    source = ['src/main/java', '../shared/java']
}

// Use a FileCollection (or FileTree in this case) to specify the source files
compile {
    source = fileTree(dir: 'src/main/java').matching { include 'org/gradle/api/**' }
}

// Using a closure to specify the source files.
compile {
    source = {
        // Use the contents of each zip file in the src dir
        file('src').listFiles().findAll {it.name.endsWith('.zip')}.collect { zipTree(it) }
    }
}

compile {
    // Add some source directories use String paths
    source 'src/main/java', 'src/main/groovy'

    // Add a source directory using a File object
    source file('../shared/java')

    // Add some source directories using a closure
    source { file('src/test/').listFiles() }
}

You can use the Copy task to copy files. The copy task is very flexible, and allows you to, for example, filter the contents of the files as they are copied, and map to the file names.

To use the Copy task, you must provide a set of source files to copy, and a destination directory to copy the files to. You may also specify how to transform the files as they are copied. You do all this using a copy spec. A copy spec is represented by the CopySpec interface. The Copy task implements this interface. You specify the source files using the CopySpec.from() method. To specify the destination directory, use the CopySpec.into() method.

task copyTask(type: Copy) {
    from 'src/main/webapp'
    into 'build/explodedWar'
}

The from() method accepts any of the arguments that the files() method does. When an argument resolves to a directory, everything under that directory (but not the directory itself) is recursively copied into the destination directory. When an argument resolves to a file, that file is copied into the destination directory. When an argument resolves to a non-existing file, that argument is ignored. If the argument is a task, the output files (i.e. the files the task creates) of the task are copied and the task is automatically added as a dependency of the Copy task. The into() accepts any of the arguments that the file() method does. Here is another example:

task anotherCopyTask(type: Copy) {
    // Copy everything under src/main/webapp
    from 'src/main/webapp'
    // Copy a single file
    from 'src/staging/index.html'
    // Copy the output of a task
    from copyTask
    // Copy the output of a task using Task outputs explicitly.
    from copyTaskWithPatterns.outputs
    // Copy the contents of a Zip file
    from zipTree('src/main/assets.zip')
    // Determine the destination directory later
    into { getDestDir() }
}

You can select the files to copy using Ant-style include or exclude patterns, or using a closure:

task copyTaskWithPatterns(type: Copy) {
    from 'src/main/webapp'
    into 'build/explodedWar'
    include '**/*.html'
    include '**/*.jsp'
    exclude { details -> details.file.name.endsWith('.html') &&
                         details.file.text.contains('staging') }
}

You can also use the Project.copy() method to copy files. It works the same way as the task with some major limitations though. First, the copy() is not incremental (see Section 17.9, “Skipping tasks that are up-to-date”).

task copyMethod << {
    copy {
        from 'src/main/webapp'
        into 'build/explodedWar'
        include '**/*.html'
        include '**/*.jsp'
    }
}

Secondly, the copy() method can not honor task dependencies when a task is used as a copy source (i.e. as an argument to from()) because it's a method and not a task. As such, if you are using the copy() method as part of a task action, you must explicitly declare all inputs and outputs in order to get the correct behavior.

task copyMethodWithExplicitDependencies{
    // up-to-date check for inputs, plus add copyTask as dependency
    inputs.file copyTask
    outputs.dir 'some-dir' // up-to-date check for outputs
    doLast{
        copy {
            // Copy the output of copyTask
            from copyTask
            into 'some-dir'
        }
    }
}

It is preferable to use the Copy task wherever possible, as it supports incremental building and task dependency inference without any extra effort on your part. The copy() method can be used to copy files as part of a task's implementation. That is, the copy method is intended to be used by custom tasks (see Chapter 38, Writing Custom Task Classes) that need to copy files as part of their function. In such a scenario, the custom task should sufficiently declare the inputs/outputs relevant to the copy action.

task rename(type: Copy) {
    from 'src/main/webapp'
    into 'build/explodedWar'
    // Use a closure to map the file name
    rename { String fileName ->
        fileName.replace('-staging-', '')
    }
    // Use a regular expression to map the file name
    rename '(.+)-staging-(.+)', '$1$2'
    rename(/(.+)-staging-(.+)/, '$1$2')
}

import org.apache.tools.ant.filters.FixCrLfFilter
import org.apache.tools.ant.filters.ReplaceTokens

task filter(type: Copy) {
    from 'src/main/webapp'
    into 'build/explodedWar'
    // Substitute property tokens in files
    expand(copyright: '2009', version: '2.3.1')
    expand(project.properties)
    // Use some of the filters provided by Ant
    filter(FixCrLfFilter)
    filter(ReplaceTokens, tokens: [copyright: '2009', version: '2.3.1'])
    // Use a closure to filter each line
    filter { String line ->
        "[$line]"
    }
    // Use a closure to remove lines
    filter { String line ->
        line.startsWith('-') ? null : line
    }
}

task nestedSpecs(type: Copy) {
    into 'build/explodedWar'
    exclude '**/*staging*'
    from('src/dist') {
        include '**/*.html'
    }
    into('libs') {
        from configurations.runtime
    }
}

The Sync task extends the Copy task. When it executes, it copies the source files into the destination directory, and then removes any files from the destination directory which it did not copy. This can be useful for doing things such as installing your application, creating an exploded copy of your archives, or maintaining a copy of the project's dependencies.

Here is an example which maintains a copy of the project's runtime dependencies in the build/libs directory.

task libs(type: Sync) {
    from configurations.runtime
    into "$buildDir/libs"
}

A project can have as many JAR archives as you want. You can also add WAR, ZIP and TAR archives to your project. Archives are created using the various archive tasks: Zip, Tar, Jar, War, and Ear. They all work the same way, so let's look at how you create a ZIP file.

apply plugin: 'java'

task zip(type: Zip) {
    from 'src/dist'
    into('libs') {
        from configurations.runtime
    }
}

The archive tasks all work exactly the same way as the Copy task, and implement the same CopySpec interface. As with the Copy task, you specify the input files using the from() method, and can optionally specify where they end up in the archive using the into() method. You can filter the contents of file, rename files, and all the other things you can do with a copy spec.

apply plugin: 'java'

version = 1.0

task myZip(type: Zip) {
    from 'somedir'
}

println myZip.archiveName
println relativePath(myZip.destinationDir)
println relativePath(myZip.archivePath)

> gradle -q myZip
zipProject-1.0.zip
build/distributions
build/distributions/zipProject-1.0.zip

apply plugin: 'java'
version = 1.0

task myZip(type: Zip) {
    from 'somedir'
    baseName = 'customName'
}

println myZip.archiveName

> gradle -q myZip
customName-1.0.zip

apply plugin: 'java'
archivesBaseName = 'gradle'
version = 1.0

task myZip(type: Zip) {
    appendix = 'wrapper'
    classifier = 'src'
    from 'somedir'
}

println myZip.archiveName

> gradle -q myZip
gradle-wrapper-1.0-src.zip

Often you will want to publish an archive, so that it is usable from another project. This process is described in Chapter 30, Publishing artifacts

In your build script, a property called ant is provided by Gradle. This is a reference to an AntBuilder instance. This AntBuilder is used to access Ant tasks, types and properties from your build script. There is a very simple mapping from Ant's build.xml format to Groovy, which is explained below.

You execute an Ant task by calling a method on the AntBuilder instance. You use the task name as the method name. For example, you execute the Ant echo task by calling the ant.echo() method. The attributes of the Ant task are passed as Map parameters to the method. Below is an example of the echo task. Notice that we can also mix Groovy code and the Ant task markup. This can be extremely powerful.

task hello << {
    String greeting = 'hello from Ant'
    ant.echo(message: greeting)
}

> gradle hello
:hello
[ant:echo] hello from Ant

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

You pass nested text to an Ant task by passing it as a parameter of the task method call. In this example, we pass the message for the echo task as nested text:

task hello << {
    ant.echo('hello from Ant')
}

> gradle hello
:hello
[ant:echo] hello from Ant

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

You pass nested elements to an Ant task inside a closure. Nested elements are defined in the same way as tasks, by calling a method with the same name as the element we want to define.

task zip << {
    ant.zip(destfile: 'archive.zip') {
        fileset(dir: 'src') {
            include(name: '**.xml')
            exclude(name: '**.java')
        }
    }
}

You can access Ant types in the same way that you access tasks, using the name of the type as the method name. The method call returns the Ant data type, which you can then use directly in your build script. In the following example, we create an Ant path object, then iterate over the contents of it.

task list << {
    def path = ant.path {
        fileset(dir: 'libs', includes: '*.jar')
    }
    path.list().each {
        println it
    }
}

More information about AntBuilder can be found in 'Groovy in Action' 8.4 or at the Groovy Wiki

task check << {
    ant.taskdef(resource: 'checkstyletask.properties') {
        classpath {
            fileset(dir: 'libs', includes: '*.jar')
        }
    }
    ant.checkstyle(config: 'checkstyle.xml') {
        fileset(dir: 'src')
    }
}

configurations {
    pmd
}

dependencies {
    pmd group: 'pmd', name: 'pmd', version: '4.2.5'
}

task check << {
    ant.taskdef(name: 'pmd',
                classname: 'net.sourceforge.pmd.ant.PMDTask',
                classpath: configurations.pmd.asPath)
    ant.pmd(shortFilenames: 'true',
            failonruleviolation: 'true',
            rulesetfiles: file('pmd-rules.xml').toURI().toString()) {
        formatter(type: 'text', toConsole: 'true')
        fileset(dir: 'src')
    }
}

You can use the ant.importBuild() method to import an Ant build into your Gradle project. When you import an Ant build, each Ant target is treated as a Gradle task. This means you can manipulate and execute the Ant targets in exactly the same way as Gradle tasks.

ant.importBuild 'build.xml'

<project>
    <target name="hello">
        <echo>Hello, from Ant</echo>
    </target>
</project>

> gradle hello
:hello
[ant:echo] Hello, from Ant

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

You can add a task which depends on an Ant target:

ant.importBuild 'build.xml'

task intro(dependsOn: hello) << {
    println 'Hello, from Gradle'
}

> gradle intro
:hello
[ant:echo] Hello, from Ant
:intro
Hello, from Gradle

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

Or, you can add behaviour to an Ant target:

ant.importBuild 'build.xml'

hello << {
    println 'Hello, from Gradle'
}

> gradle hello
:hello
[ant:echo] Hello, from Ant
Hello, from Gradle

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

It is also possible for an Ant target to depend on a Gradle task:

ant.importBuild 'build.xml'

task intro << {
    println 'Hello, from Gradle'
}

<project>
    <target name="hello" depends="intro">
        <echo>Hello, from Ant</echo>
    </target>
</project>

> gradle hello
:intro
Hello, from Gradle
:hello
[ant:echo] Hello, from Ant

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

Sometimes it may be necessary to “rename” the task generated for an Ant target to avoid a naming collision with existing Gradle tasks. To do this, use the AntBuilder.importBuild() method.

ant.importBuild('build.xml') { antTargetName ->
    'a-' + antTargetName
}

<project>
    <target name="hello">
        <echo>Hello, from Ant</echo>
    </target>
</project>

> gradle a-hello
:a-hello
[ant:echo] Hello, from Ant

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

Note that while the second argument to this method should be a Transformer, when programming in Groovy we can simply use a closure instead of an anonymous inner class (or similar) due to Groovy's support for automatically coercing closures to single-abstract-method types.

There are several ways to set an Ant property, so that the property can be used by Ant tasks. You can set the property directly on the AntBuilder instance. The Ant properties are also available as a Map which you can change. You can also use the Ant property task. Below are some examples of how to do this.

ant.buildDir = buildDir
ant.properties.buildDir = buildDir
ant.properties['buildDir'] = buildDir
ant.property(name: 'buildDir', location: buildDir)

<echo>buildDir = ${buildDir}</echo>

Many Ant tasks set properties when they execute. There are several ways to get the value of these properties. You can get the property directly from the AntBuilder instance. The Ant properties are also available as a Map. Below are some examples.

<property name="antProp" value="a property defined in an Ant build"/>

println ant.antProp
println ant.properties.antProp
println ant.properties['antProp']

There are several ways to set an Ant reference:

ant.path(id: 'classpath', location: 'libs')
ant.references.classpath = ant.path(location: 'libs')
ant.references['classpath'] = ant.path(location: 'libs')

<path refid="classpath"/>

There are several ways to get an Ant reference:

<path id="antPath" location="libs"/>

println ant.references.antPath
println ant.references['antPath']

The Ant integration is provided by AntBuilder.

A Gradle build has three distinct phases.

Beside the build script files, Gradle defines a settings file. The settings file is determined by Gradle via a naming convention. The default name for this file is settings.gradle. Later in this chapter we explain how Gradle looks for a settings file.

The settings file is executed during the initialization phase. A multiproject build must have a settings.gradle file in the root project of the multiproject hierarchy. It is required because the settings file defines which projects are taking part in the multi-project build (see Chapter 24, Multi-project Builds). For a single-project build, a settings file is optional. Besides defining the included projects, you might need it to add libraries to your build script classpath (see Chapter 41, Organizing Build Logic). Let's first do some introspection with a single project build:

println 'This is executed during the initialization phase.'

println 'This is executed during the configuration phase.'

task configured {
    println 'This is also executed during the configuration phase.'
}

task test << {
    println 'This is executed during the execution phase.'
}

task testBoth {
    doFirst {
      println 'This is executed first during the execution phase.'
    }
    doLast {
      println 'This is executed last during the execution phase.'
    }
    println 'This is executed during the configuration phase as well.'
}

> gradle test testBoth
This is executed during the initialization phase.
This is executed during the configuration phase.
This is also executed during the configuration phase.
This is executed during the configuration phase as well.
:test
This is executed during the execution phase.
:testBoth
This is executed first during the execution phase.
This is executed last during the execution phase.

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 1 secs

For a build script, the property access and method calls are delegated to a project object. Similarly property access and method calls within the settings file is delegated to a settings object. Look at the Settings class in the API documentation for more information.

A multi-project build is a build where you build more than one project during a single execution of Gradle. You have to declare the projects taking part in the multiproject build in the settings file. There is much more to say about multi-project builds in the chapter dedicated to this topic (see Chapter 24, Multi-project Builds).

include 'project1', 'project2:child', 'project3:child1'

includeFlat 'project3', 'project4'

println rootProject.name
println project(':projectA').name

rootProject.name = 'main'
project(':projectA').projectDir = new File(settingsDir, '../my-project-a')
project(':projectA').buildFileName = 'projectA.gradle'

How does Gradle know whether to do a single or multiproject build? If you trigger a multiproject build from a directory with a settings file, things are easy. But Gradle also allows you to execute the build from within any subproject taking part in the build. ^[9] If you execute Gradle from within a project with no settings.gradle file, Gradle looks for a settings.gradle file in the following way:

What is the purpose of this behavior? Gradle needs to determine whether the project you are in is a subproject of a multiproject build or not. Of course, if it is a subproject, only the subproject and its dependent projects are built, but Gradle needs to create the build configuration for the whole multiproject build (see Chapter 24, Multi-project Builds). You can use the -u command line option to tell Gradle not to look in the parent hierarchy for a settings.gradle file. The current project is then always built as a single project build. If the current project contains a settings.gradle file, the -u option has no meaning. Such a build is always executed as:

The automatic search for a settings.gradle file only works for multi-project builds with a physical hierarchical or flat layout. For a flat layout you must additionally follow the naming convention described above (“master”). Gradle supports arbitrary physical layouts for a multiproject build, but for such arbitrary layouts you need to execute the build from the directory where the settings file is located. For information on how to run partial builds from the root see Section 24.4, “Running tasks by their absolute path”.

Gradle creates a Project object for every project taking part in the build. For a multi-project build these are the projects specified in the Settings object (plus the root project). Each project object has by default a name equal to the name of its top level directory, and every project except the root project has a parent project. Any project may have child projects.

For a single project build, the workflow of the after initialization phases are pretty simple. The build script is executed against the project object that was created during the initialization phase. Then Gradle looks for tasks with names equal to those passed as command line arguments. If these task names exist, they are executed as a separate build in the order you have passed them. The configuration and execution for multi-project builds is discussed in Chapter 24, Multi-project Builds.

Your build script can receive notifications as the build progresses through its lifecycle. These notifications generally take two forms: You can either implement a particular listener interface, or you can provide a closure to execute when the notification is fired. The examples below use closures. For details on how to use the listener interfaces, refer to the API documentation.

allprojects {
    afterEvaluate { project ->
        if (project.hasTests) {
            println "Adding test task to $project"
            project.task('test') << {
                println "Running tests for $project"
            }
        }
    }
}

hasTests = true

> gradle -q test
Adding test task to project ':projectA'
Running tests for project ':projectA'

gradle.afterProject {project, projectState ->
    if (projectState.failure) {
        println "Evaluation of $project FAILED"
    } else {
        println "Evaluation of $project succeeded"
    }
}

> gradle -q test
Evaluation of root project 'buildProjectEvaluateEvents' succeeded
Evaluation of project ':projectA' succeeded
Evaluation of project ':projectB' FAILED

tasks.whenTaskAdded { task ->
    task.ext.srcDir = 'src/main/java'
}

task a

println "source dir is $a.srcDir"

> gradle -q a
source dir is src/main/java

task ok

task broken(dependsOn: ok) << {
    throw new RuntimeException('broken')
}

gradle.taskGraph.beforeTask { Task task ->
    println "executing $task ..."
}

gradle.taskGraph.afterTask { Task task, TaskState state ->
    if (state.failure) {
        println "FAILED"
    }
    else {
        println "done"
    }
}

> gradle -q broken
executing task ':ok' ...
done
executing task ':broken' ...
FAILED

Without modifying the build.gradle file, the wrapper plugin can be auto-applied to the root project of the current build by running “gradle wrapper” from the command line. This applies the plugin if no task named wrapper is already defined in the build.

The wrapper plugin adds the following tasks to the project:

You can use the command line switches shown in Table 22.2, “Log level command-line options” to choose different log levels. In Table 22.3, “Stacktrace command-line options” you find the command line switches which affect stacktrace logging.

A simple option for logging in your build file is to write messages to standard output. Gradle redirects anything written to standard output to it's logging system at the QUIET log level.

println 'A message which is logged at QUIET level'

Gradle also provides a logger property to a build script, which is an instance of Logger. This interface extends the SLF4J Logger interface and adds a few Gradle specific methods to it. Below is an example of how this is used in the build script:

logger.quiet('An info log message which is always logged.')
logger.error('An error log message.')
logger.warn('A warning log message.')
logger.lifecycle('A lifecycle info log message.')
logger.info('An info log message.')
logger.debug('A debug log message.')
logger.trace('A trace log message.')

You can also hook into Gradle's logging system from within other classes used in the build (classes from the buildSrc directory for example). Simply use an SLF4J logger. You can use this logger the same way as you use the provided logger in the build script.

import org.slf4j.Logger
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory

Logger slf4jLogger = LoggerFactory.getLogger('some-logger')
slf4jLogger.info('An info log message logged using SLF4j')

Internally, Gradle uses Ant and Ivy. Both have their own logging system. Gradle redirects their logging output into the Gradle logging system. There is a 1:1 mapping from the Ant/Ivy log levels to the Gradle log levels, except the Ant/Ivy TRACE log level, which is mapped to Gradle DEBUG log level. This means the default Gradle log level will not show any Ant/Ivy output unless it is an error or a warning.

There are many tools out there which still use standard output for logging. By default, Gradle redirects standard output to the QUIET log level and standard error to the ERROR level. This behavior is configurable. The project object provides a LoggingManager, which allows you to change the log levels that standard out or error are redirected to when your build script is evaluated.

logging.captureStandardOutput LogLevel.INFO
println 'A message which is logged at INFO level'

To change the log level for standard out or error during task execution, tasks also provide a LoggingManager.

task logInfo {
    logging.captureStandardOutput LogLevel.INFO
    doFirst {
        println 'A task message which is logged at INFO level'
    }
}

Gradle also provides integration with the Java Util Logging, Jakarta Commons Logging and Log4j logging toolkits. Any log messages which your build classes write using these logging toolkits will be redirected to Gradle's logging system.

You can replace much of Gradle's logging UI with your own. You might do this, for example, if you want to customize the UI in some way - to log more or less information, or to change the formatting. You replace the logging using the Gradle.useLogger() method. This is accessible from a build script, or an init script, or via the embedding API. Note that this completely disables Gradle's default output. Below is an example init script which changes how task execution and build completion is logged.

useLogger(new CustomEventLogger())

class CustomEventLogger extends BuildAdapter implements TaskExecutionListener {

    public void beforeExecute(Task task) {
        println "[$task.name]"
    }

    public void afterExecute(Task task, TaskState state) {
        println()
    }
    
    public void buildFinished(BuildResult result) {
        println 'build completed'
        if (result.failure != null) {
            result.failure.printStackTrace()
        }
    }
}

> gradle -I init.gradle build
[compile]
compiling source

[testCompile]
compiling test source

[test]
running unit tests

[build]

build completed

Your logger can implement any of the listener interfaces listed below. When you register a logger, only the logging for the interfaces that it implements is replaced. Logging for the other interfaces is left untouched. You can find out more about the listener interfaces in Section 20.6, “Responding to the lifecycle in the build script”.

Dependency management is a critical feature of every build, and Gradle has placed an emphasis on offering first-class dependency management that is both easy to understand and compatible with a wide variety of approaches. If you are familiar with the approach used by either Maven or Ivy you will be delighted to learn that Gradle is fully compatible with both approaches in addition to being flexible enough to support fully-customized approaches.

Here are the major highlights of Gradle's support for dependency management:

With hundreds of thousands of interdependent open source components each with a range of versions and incompatibilities, dependency management has a habit of causing problems as builds grow in complexity. When a build's dependency tree becomes unwieldy, your build tool shouldn't force you to adopt a single, inflexible approach to dependency management. A proper build system has to be designed to be flexible, and Gradle can handle any situation.

While Gradle has strong opinions on dependency management, the tool gives you a choice between two options: follow recommended best practices or support any kind of pattern you can think of. This section outlines the Gradle project's recommended best practices for managing dependencies.

No matter what the language, proper dependency management is important for every project. From a complex enterprise application written in Java depending on hundreds of open source libraries to the simplest Clojure application depending on a handful of libraries, approaches to dependency management vary widely and can depend on the target technology, the method of application deployment, and the nature of the project. Projects bundled as reusable libraries may have different requirements than enterprise applications integrated into much larger systems of software and infrastructure. Despite this wide variation of requirements, the Gradle project recommends that all projects follow this set of core rules: