Gradle Release Notes

Upgrade instructions

Switch your build to use Gradle 9.1.0-branch-sigushkinDeclarativeComposabilitySpikeFromGh-20250805133820+0000 by updating the wrapper in your project:

./gradlew wrapper --gradle-version=9.1.0-branch-sigushkinDeclarativeComposabilitySpikeFromGh-20250805133820+0000 && ./gradlew wrapper

See the Gradle 9.x upgrade guide to learn about deprecations, breaking changes, and other considerations when upgrading to Gradle 9.1.0-branch-sigushkinDeclarativeComposabilitySpikeFromGh-20250805133820+0000.

For Java, Groovy, Kotlin, and Android compatibility, see the full compatibility notes.

New features and usability improvements

Ear Plugin

It is now possible to generate valid deployment descriptors for Jakarta EE 11 by specifying the corresponding version in the deploymentDescriptor instead of having to use a custom descriptor file.

tasks.ear {
    deploymentDescriptor {  // custom entries for application.xml:
        version = "11"
    }
}

CLI improvement

Off-screen lines reported in rich console

This release adds a status line to the rich console that reports the number of in-progress events not currently visible on screen.

> (2 lines not showing)

This occurs when there are more ongoing events than the console has lines available to display them.

Plain console with colors

This release adds a new value for the --console command line option called colored, which enables color output for the console while omitting rich features such as progress bars.

Build authoring improvements

Introduce AttributeContainer#addAllLater

This release introduces a new API on AttributeContainer allowing all attributes from one attribute container to be lazily added to another.

Consider the following example demonstrating the new API's behavior:

val color = Attribute.of("color", String::class.java)
val shape = Attribute.of("shape", String::class.java)

val foo = configurations.create("foo").attributes
foo.attribute(color, "green")

val bar = configurations.create("bar").attributes
bar.attribute(color, "red")
bar.attribute(shape, "square")
assert(bar.getAttribute(color) == "red")    // `color` is originally red

bar.addAllLater(foo)
assert(bar.getAttribute(color) == "green")  // `color` gets overwritten
assert(bar.getAttribute(shape) == "square") // `shape` does not

foo.attribute(color, "purple")
bar.getAttribute(color) == "purple"         // addAllLater is lazy

bar.attribute(color, "orange")
assert(bar.getAttribute(color) == "orange") // `color` gets overwritten again
assert(bar.getAttribute(shape) == "square") // `shape` remains the same

Accessors for compileOnly plugin dependencies in precompiled Kotlin scripts

Previously, it was not possible to use a plugin coming from a compileOnly dependency in a precompiled Kotlin script. Now it is supported, and [​type-safe accessors​]​(​userguide/kotlin_dsl.html#type-safe-accessors​) for plugins from such dependencies are available in the precompiled Kotlin scripts.

As an example, the following buildSrc/build.gradle.kts build script declares a compileOnly dependency to a third party plugin:

plugins {
    `kotlin-dsl`
}
dependencies {
    compileOnly("com.android.tools.build:gradle:x.y.z")
}

And a convention precompiled Kotlin script in buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/my-convention-plugin.gradle.kts applies it, and can now use type-safe accessors to configure the third party plugin:

plugins {
    id("com.android.application")
}
android {
    // The accessor to the `android` extension registered by the Android plugin is available
}

Introduce Gradle#getBuildPath

This release introduces a new API on the Gradle type that returns the path of the build represented by the Gradle instance, relative to the root of the build tree. For the root build, this will return :. For included builds, this will return the path of the included build relative to the root build.

This is the same path returned by BuildIdentifier#getBuildPath, but it is now available directly on the Gradle instance. This enables build authors to obtain the path of a build, similar to how they can already obtain the path of a project.

The following example demonstrates how to determine the path of the build which owns a given project:

val project: Project = getProjectInstance()
val buildPath: String = project.gradle.buildPath

Configuration Improvements

Simpler target package configuration for Antlr 4

The AntlrTask class now supports explicitly setting the target package for generated code when using Antlr 4. Previously, setting the "-package" argument also required setting the output directory in order to generate classes into the proper package-specific directory structure. This release introduces a packageName property that allows you to set the target package without needing to also set the output directory properly. Setting this property will set the "-package" argument for the Antlr tool, and will also set the generated class directory to match the package.

Explicitly setting the "-package" argument is now deprecated, and will become an error in Gradle 10.

This option is not available for versions before Antlr 4 and will result in an error if this property is set.

tasks.named("generateGrammarSource").configure {
    // Set the target package for generated code
    packageName = "com.example.generated"
}

Antlr generated sources are automatically tracked

In previous versions of Gradle, the Antlr-generated sources were added to a java source set for compilation, but if the generated sources directory was changed, this change was not reflected in the source set. This required manually updating the source set to include the new generated sources directory any time it was changed. In this release, the generated sources directory is automatically tracked and updates the source set accordingly. A task dependency is also created between the source generation task and the source set, ensuring that tasks that consume the source set as an input will automatically create a task dependency on the source generation task.

Specify the Repository in MavenPublication.distributionManagement

For a Maven publication, it is now possible to specify the repository used for distribution in the published POM file.

For example, to specify the GitHub Packages repository in the POM file, use this code:

plugins {
  id("maven-publish")
}

publications.withType<MavenPublication>().configureEach {
  pom {
    distributionManagement {
      repository {
        id = "github"
        name = "GitHub OWNER Apache Maven Packages"
        url = "https://maven.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Error and warning reporting improvements

Improved error message for Version Constraint Conflicts

In previous versions of Gradle when a version constraint conflict occurred the error message was extremely verbose and included extraneous information. It also was formatted in a way that was difficult to comprehend, especially when constraints involved in the conflict were added by transitive dependencies.

> Could not resolve org:foo:3.2.
  Required by:
      root project 'test'
   > Cannot find a version of 'org:foo' that satisfies the version constraints:
        Dependency path: 'root project :' (conf) --> 'org:bar:2.0' (runtime) --> 'org:foo:3.1'
        Constraint path: 'root project :' (conf) --> 'org:platform:1.1' (platform) --> 'org:foo:{strictly 3.1.1; reject 3.1 & 3.2}'
        Constraint path: 'root project :' (conf) --> 'org:foo:3.2'
        Constraint path: 'root project :' (conf) --> 'org:baz:3.0' (runtime) --> 'org:foo:3.3'
        Constraint path: 'root project :' (conf) --> 'org:other:3.0' (runtime) --> 'org:foo:3.3'

The new message focuses attention on the conflicting versions required by the constraints involved in the conflict.

> Could not resolve org:foo.
  Required by:
      root project 'mec0k'
   > Component is the target of multiple version constraints with conflicting requirements:
     3.1.1 - directly in 'org:platform:1.1' (platform)
     3.2
     3.3 - transitively via 'org:baz:3.0' (runtime) (1 other path to this version)

This makes it clearer by:

• Immediately stating that there is a conflict in version constraints for a component, and not merely a failure to find a suitable candidate in the searched repositories when resolving dependencies
• Clearly showing each constrained version involved in the conflict
• Showing where the conflicting constraints are declared (either the project doing resolution, its direct dependencies, its transitive dependencies, or dependency locking) without showing the complete dependency paths, which can be long and hard to read and are available in the dependency insight report
• Showing how many paths to each constraint exist in the dependency graph, but only printing the first one, which is usually sufficient to understand the conflict

It also avoids showing non-strict dependency declarations, like the first line in the old version, which are irrelevant to understanding the conflict.

A suggestion message at the end of the build will also provide the exact syntax for running dependencyInsight on the failing configuration, to further investigate it by viewing comprehensive dependency resolution information.

Task graph diagnostic

A new task dependency graph is available to visualize the dependencies between tasks without executing them. You can enable it using the --task-graph option on the command line. For example:

./gradlew root r2 --task-graph

This prints a visual representation of the task graph for the specified tasks:

Tasks graph for: root r2
+--- :root (org.gradle.api.DefaultTask)
|    \--- :middle (org.gradle.api.DefaultTask)
|         +--- :leaf1 (org.gradle.api.DefaultTask)
|         \--- :leaf2 (org.gradle.api.DefaultTask, disabled)
\--- :root2 (org.gradle.api.DefaultTask)
    +--- :leaf1 (*)
    |--- other build task :included:fromIncluded (org.gradle.api.DefaultTask)
    \--- :leaf4 (org.gradle.api.DefaultTask, finalizer)
         \--- :leaf3 (org.gradle.api.DefaultTask)

(*) - details omitted (listed previously)

This feature provides a quick overview of the task graph, helping users understand the dependencies between tasks without running them. You can iterate by diving into a subgraph by adjusting an invocation.

This feature is incubating and may change in future releases.

Fixed --dry-run behavior in composite builds

Gradle now correctly respects --dry-run in composite builds, ensuring that tasks are not executed during the execution phase of included builds.

Note that tasks from some included builds may still be executed during configuration time, as part of their configuration logic.

This restores expected behavior and makes --dry-run safer for previewing task execution plans across composite builds.

Project report updated

The Project Report has been updated to show projects' physical locations in the file system, as well as their logical build paths.

------------------------------------------------------------
Root project 'avoidEmptyProjects-do'
------------------------------------------------------------

Location: /usr/jsmith/projects/avoidEmptyProjects-do
Description: Example project to demonstrate Gradle's project hierarchy and locations

Project hierarchy:

Root project 'avoidEmptyProjects-do'
+--- Project ':app'
\--- Project ':my-web-module'

Project locations:

project ':app' - /app
project ':my-web-module' - /subs/web/my-web-module

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

This will help authors better understand the structure of hierarchical builds that use non-standard project directories.

Promoted features

Promoted features are features that were incubating in previous versions of Gradle but are now supported and subject to backward compatibility. See the User Manual section on the "Feature Lifecycle" for more information.

The following are the features that have been promoted in this Gradle release.

• getDependencyFactory() in Project

Fixed issues

Known issues

Known issues are problems that were discovered post-release that are directly related to changes made in this release.

External contributions

We love getting contributions from the Gradle community. For information on contributing, please see gradle.org/contribute.

Reporting problems

If you find a problem with this release, please file a bug on GitHub Issues adhering to our issue guidelines. If you're not sure if you're encountering a bug, please use the forum.

We hope you will build happiness with Gradle, and we look forward to your feedback via Twitter or on GitHub.