Tim Berglund - Gradle Beyond the Basics

I would like to extend my thanks to my team of excellent tech editors who contributed ably to the quality of this book: Jason Porter, Spencer Allain, Darin Pope, and Rod Hilton. Special thanks go to Luke Daley, who didnt just edit, but provided significant rewrites to the chapter on dependency management when the original version didnt quite capture the spirit of the subject matter. Luke was also a willing helper on the other end of a Skype chat window on more than one occasion when I had a technical question about some Gradle internal or other. He is a valued friend with whom I look forward to more collaboration in the future.

Additional thanks go to my friend, Matthew McCullough, for his early contributions to the chapter on Build Hooks. Matthew has a long history in the build tool space, and his insights into build metaprogramming were no small help in getting that chapter right.

Thanks of course to the longsuffering Hans Docktor, who waited perhaps a year longer than expected to get this book. It is likewise always a pleasure to work with him and to call him my friend.

I am obligated to acknowledge my editor, Meghan Blanchette, but in this case the obligation is one I receive willingly. If Meghan and I work together on another book, she may want to create some automation around the emails she sends to me asking if I am going to keep my latest deadline, so frequent are those checkups. I will still enjoy hearing from her.

I tend to write very early in the morning, so my wife, Kari, never actually saw me work on this volume. She did, however, experience more than one spate of her husband falling asleep at 9:00 pm for many days on end so he could wake up early the next day and write. My thanks, and her name in print, is the least I can offer.

To Hannah and Sarah: Proverbs 14:26.

If the most essential operation in a build is to compile code, then surely the second most essential operation is to copy files. A real-world build routinely copies files from place to place, recursing directory trees, pattern-maching filenames, and performing string operations on file content. Gradle exposes a few methods, task types, and interfaces to make file operations flexible and easy. Collectively, these form Gradles file API.

To explore the file API, well start with practical examples of how to use the Copy task. Well move from there to an exploration of the file-related methods of the Project object, which are available to you anywhere inside a Gradle build. In the process, well learn about the