The Distribution Plugin

The Distribution Plugin facilitates building archives that serve as distributions of the project. Distribution archives typically contain the executable application and other supporting files, such as documentation.

Usage

To use the Distribution Plugin, include the following in your build script:

Example 1. Using the Distribution Plugin

build.gradle.kts

plugins {
    distribution
}

build.gradle

plugins {
    id 'distribution'
}

The plugin adds an extension named distributions of type DistributionContainer to the project. It also creates a single distribution in the distributions container extension named main. If your build only produces one distribution you only need to configure this distribution (or use the defaults).

You can run gradle distZip to package the main distribution as a ZIP, or gradle distTar to create a TAR file. To build both types of archives just run gradle assembleDist. The files will be created at layout.buildDirectory.dir("distributions/${project.name}-${project.version}.«ext»").

You can run gradle installDist to assemble the uncompressed distribution into layout.buildDirectory.dir("install/${project.name}").

Tasks

The Distribution Plugin adds a number of tasks to your project, as shown below.

distZip — Zip: Creates a ZIP archive of the distribution contents.
distTar — Task: Creates a TAR archive of the distribution contents.
assembleDist — Task: Depends on: distTar, distZip

Creates ZIP and TAR archives of the distribution contents.
installDist — Sync: Assembles the distribution content and installs it on the current machine.

For each additional distribution you add to the project, the Distribution Plugin adds the following tasks, where distributionName comes from Distribution.getName():

distributionNameDistZip — Zip: Creates a ZIP archive of the distribution contents.
distributionNameDistTar — Tar: Creates a TAR archive of the distribution contents.
assembleDistributionNameDist — Task: Depends on: distributionNameDistTar, distributionNameDistZip

Creates ZIP and TAR archives of the distribution contents.
installDistributionNameDist — Sync: Assembles the distribution content and installs it on the current machine.

The following sample creates a custom distribution that will cause four additional tasks to be added to the project: customDistZip, customDistTar, assembleCustomDist, and installCustomDist:

Example 2. Adding extra distributions

build.gradle.kts

distributions {
    create("custom") {
        // configure custom distribution
    }
}

build.gradle

distributions {
    custom {
        // configure custom distribution
    }
}

Given that the project name is myproject and version 1.2, running gradle customDistZip will produce a ZIP file named myproject-custom-1.2.zip.

Running gradle installCustomDist will install the distribution contents into layout.buildDirectory.dir("install/custom").

Distribution contents

All of the files in the src/$distribution.name/dist directory will automatically be included in the distribution. You can add additional files by configuring the Distribution object that is part of the container.

Example 3. Configuring the main distribution

build.gradle.kts

distributions {
    main {
        distributionBaseName = "someName"
        distributionClassifier = "classifier"
        contents {
            from("src/readme")
        }
    }
}

build.gradle

distributions {
    main {
        distributionBaseName = 'someName'
        distributionClassifier = 'classifier'
        contents {
            from 'src/readme'
        }
    }
}

In the example above, the content of the src/readme directory will be included in the distribution (along with the files in the src/main/dist directory which are added by default).

The distributionBaseName and distributionClassifier properties have also been changed. This will cause the distribution archives to be created with a different name.

Example 4. Adding Files and Directories

build.gradle.kts

distributions {
    main {
        distributionBaseName = "someName"
        contents {
            into("bin/config") {
                from("config")
            }
            into("lib/samples") {
                from("samples")
            }
        }
    }
}

build.gradle

distributions {
    main {
        distributionBaseName = 'someName'
        contents {
            into('bin/config') {
                from 'config'
            }
            into('lib/samples') {
                from 'samples'
            }
        }
    }
}

In the example above, CopySpec defines the contents, ensuring the bin/config directory is automatically created if it doesn’t already exist, and the contents of the config directory are copied into it. The same process applies to the lib/samples directory.

Gradle provides a robust set of APIs to simplify handling files, managing file dependencies, generating reports, and more. CopySpec is simply one example.

File operations are covered in Working With Files.

Publishing

A distribution can be published using the Ivy Publish Plugin or Maven Publish Plugin.

Using the Ivy/Maven Publish Plugins

To publish a distribution to an Ivy repository with the Ivy Publish Plugin, add one or both of its archive tasks to an IvyPublication. The following sample demonstrates how to add the ZIP archive of the main distribution and the TAR archive of the custom distribution to the myDistribution publication:

Example 5. Adding distribution archives to an Ivy publication

build.gradle.kts

plugins {
    `ivy-publish`
}

publishing {
    publications {
        create<IvyPublication>("myDistribution") {
            artifact(tasks.distZip.get())
            artifact(tasks["customDistTar"])
        }
    }
}

build.gradle

plugins {
    id 'ivy-publish'
}

publishing {
    publications {
        myDistribution(IvyPublication) {
            artifact distZip
            artifact customDistTar
        }
    }
}

Similarly, to publish a distribution to a Maven repository using the Maven Publish Plugin, add one or both of its archive tasks to a MavenPublication as follows:

Example 6. Adding distribution archives to a Maven publication

build.gradle.kts

plugins {
    `maven-publish`
}

publishing {
    publications {
        create<MavenPublication>("myDistribution") {
            artifact(tasks.distZip)
            artifact(tasks["customDistTar"])
        }
    }
}

build.gradle

plugins {
    id 'maven-publish'
}

publishing {
    publications {
        myDistribution(MavenPublication) {
            artifact distZip
            artifact customDistTar
        }
    }
}

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