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[[best_practices]]
= Best Practices for Authoring Gradle Builds

== Introduction

Gradle is a powerful and flexible tool for building software, but along with these benefits comes complexity and the need for clear guidance on best practices.
There are many scenarios where how to best use Gradle is unclear, as Gradle provides several ways of accomplishing the same goals.
Often there is a need to determine if a current solution is likely to cause problems down the line, or if problems could have been avoided in advance by using Gradle differently.
This guide aims to help Gradle authors navigate these scenarios and make informed decisions about how to use Gradle effectively.

=== What this Guide is

This section outlines best practices for authoring Gradle builds that are maintainable, function properly, and are aligned with Gradle's core design philosophy.
Some of these practices are things to do, and some are things to avoid doing.

This guide is informed by real-world experience in some of the largest software ecosystems using Gradle.
It targets all levels of Gradle expertise, from beginners to advanced users.
Not every practice here will be applicable to every build, however these are meant to be widely applicable and beneficial to many different usage scenarios.

This guide is **not** meant as instructions for how to use Gradle.
For that purpose, we provide extensive tutorials and reference materials <<getting_started_eng.adoc#introduction,elsewhere>> in the Gradle documentation.

=== Principles

The items in this guide are meant to be _brief_, _understandable_, and _actionable_.

- Build authors should be able to quickly recognize when they are following best practices and when they are not.
- After reading, they should understand why a particular approach is beneficial or problematic and where to find further reference material.
- Recommendations should be widely applicable to _many_ or _most_ typical builds and should provide specific, concrete advice.

== Index

To view all Gradle Best Practices at a glance, along with the Gradle version they were introduced in, visit the <<best_practices_index.adoc#best_practices_index,Index Page>>.

== Best Practices

- <<best_practices_general.adoc#best_practices_general,General Best Practices>>
- <<best_practices_structuring_builds.adoc#best_practices_structuring_builds,Best Practices for Structuring Builds>>
- <<best_practices_dependencies.adoc#best_practices_for_dependencies,Best Practices for Dependencies>>
- <<best_practices_tasks.adoc#best_practices_for_tasks,Best Practices for Tasks>>
- <<best_practices_performance.adoc#best_practices_for_performance,Best Practices for Performance>>
- <<best_practices_security.adoc#best_practices_for_security,Best Practices for Security>>
- <<best_practices_testing.adoc#best_practices_for_testing,Best Practices for Testing>>

== Other Advice

- <<performance.adoc#performance_gradle, Improving the Performance of Gradle Builds>>
- <<organizing_gradle_projects.adoc#sec:structuring_recommendations,Structuring Gradle Builds>>

== References

- <<tags_reference.adoc#tags_reference,Tags Used in Best Practices>>
