Installing Gradle
Gradle Installation
If all you want to do is run an existing Gradle project, then you don’t need to install Gradle if the build uses the Gradle Wrapper.
This is identifiable by the presence of the gradlew or gradlew.bat files in the root of the project:
. (1) ├── gradle │ └── wrapper (2) ├── gradlew (3) ├── gradlew.bat (3) └── ⋮
| 1 | Project root directory. |
| 2 | Gradle Wrapper. |
| 3 | Scripts for executing Gradle builds. |
If the gradlew or gradlew.bat files are already present in your project, you do not need to install Gradle.
But you need to make sure your system satisfies Gradle’s prerequisites.
You can follow the steps in the Upgrading Gradle section if you want to update the Gradle version for your project. Please use the Gradle Wrapper to upgrade Gradle.
Android Studio comes with a working installation of Gradle, so you don’t need to install Gradle separately when only working within that IDE.
If you do not meet the criteria above and decide to install Gradle on your machine, first check if Gradle is already installed by running gradle -v in your terminal.
If the command does not return anything, then Gradle is not installed, and you can follow the instructions below.
You can install Gradle Build Tool on Linux, macOS, or Windows. The installation can be done manually or using a package manager like SDKMAN! or Homebrew.
You can find all Gradle releases and their checksums on the releases page.
Prerequisites
Gradle runs on all major operating systems. It requires Java Development Kit (JDK) version 8 or higher to run. You can check the compatibility matrix for more information.
To check, run java -version:
❯ java -version openjdk version "11.0.18" 2023-01-17 OpenJDK Runtime Environment Homebrew (build 11.0.18+0) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Homebrew (build 11.0.18+0, mixed mode)
Gradle uses the JDK it finds in your path, the JDK used by your IDE, or the JDK specified by your project. In this example, the $PATH points to JDK17:
❯ echo $PATH /opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@17/bin
You can also set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to a specific JDK installation directory.
This is especially useful when multiple JDKs are installed:
❯ echo %JAVA_HOME% C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_80
❯ echo $JAVA_HOME /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-16.jdk/Contents/Home
Linux installation
Installing with a package manager
SDKMAN! is a tool for managing parallel versions of multiple Software Development Kits on most Unix-like systems (macOS, Linux, Cygwin, Solaris and FreeBSD). Gradle is deployed and maintained by SDKMAN!:
❯ sdk install gradle
Other package managers are available, but the version of Gradle distributed by them is not controlled by Gradle, Inc. Linux package managers may distribute a modified version of Gradle that is incompatible or incomplete when compared to the official version.
Installing manually
Step 1 - Download the latest Gradle distribution
The distribution ZIP file comes in two flavors:
-
Binary-only (bin)
-
Complete (all) with docs and sources
We recommend downloading the bin file; it is a smaller file that is quick to download (and the latest documentation is available online).
Step 2 - Unpack the distribution
Unzip the distribution zip file in the directory of your choosing, e.g.:
❯ mkdir /opt/gradle ❯ unzip -d /opt/gradle gradle-8.12-bin.zip ❯ ls /opt/gradle/gradle-8.12 LICENSE NOTICE bin README init.d lib media
Step 3 - Configure your system environment
To install Gradle, the path to the unpacked files needs to be in your Path.
Configure your PATH environment variable to include the bin directory of the unzipped distribution, e.g.:
❯ export PATH=$PATH:/opt/gradle/gradle-8.12/bin
Alternatively, you could also add the environment variable GRADLE_HOME and point this to the unzipped distribution.
Instead of adding a specific version of Gradle to your PATH, you can add $GRADLE_HOME/bin to your PATH.
When upgrading to a different version of Gradle, simply change the GRADLE_HOME environment variable.
export GRADLE_HOME=/opt/gradle/gradle-8.12
export PATH=${GRADLE_HOME}/bin:${PATH}
macOS installation
Installing with a package manager
SDKMAN! is a tool for managing parallel versions of multiple Software Development Kits on most Unix-like systems (macOS, Linux, Cygwin, Solaris and FreeBSD). Gradle is deployed and maintained by SDKMAN!:
❯ sdk install gradle
Using Homebrew:
❯ brew install gradle
Using MacPorts:
❯ sudo port install gradle
Other package managers are available, but the version of Gradle distributed by them is not controlled by Gradle, Inc.
Installing manually
Step 1 - Download the latest Gradle distribution
The distribution ZIP file comes in two flavors:
-
Binary-only (bin)
-
Complete (all) with docs and sources
We recommend downloading the bin file; it is a smaller file that is quick to download (and the latest documentation is available online).
Step 2 - Unpack the distribution
Unzip the distribution zip file in the directory of your choosing, e.g.:
❯ mkdir /usr/local/gradle ❯ unzip gradle-8.12-bin.zip -d /usr/local/gradle ❯ ls /usr/local/gradle/gradle-8.12 LICENSE NOTICE README bin init.d lib
Step 3 - Configure your system environment
To install Gradle, the path to the unpacked files needs to be in your Path.
Configure your PATH environment variable to include the bin directory of the unzipped distribution, e.g.:
❯ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/gradle/gradle-8.12/bin
Alternatively, you could also add the environment variable GRADLE_HOME and point this to the unzipped distribution.
Instead of adding a specific version of Gradle to your PATH, you can add $GRADLE_HOME/bin to your PATH.
When upgrading to a different version of Gradle, simply change the GRADLE_HOME environment variable.
It’s a good idea to edit .bash_profile in your home directory to add GRADLE_HOME variable:
export GRADLE_HOME=/usr/local/gradle/gradle-8.12 export PATH=$GRADLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
Windows installation
Installing manually
Step 1 - Download the latest Gradle distribution
The distribution ZIP file comes in two flavors:
-
Binary-only (bin)
-
Complete (all) with docs and sources
We recommend downloading the bin file.
Step 2 - Unpack the distribution
Create a new directory C:\Gradle with File Explorer.
Open a second File Explorer window and go to the directory where the Gradle distribution was downloaded. Double-click the ZIP archive to expose the content.
Drag the content folder gradle-8.12 to your newly created C:\Gradle folder.
Alternatively, you can unpack the Gradle distribution ZIP into C:\Gradle using the archiver tool of your choice.
Step 3 - Configure your system environment
To install Gradle, the path to the unpacked files needs to be in your Path.
In File Explorer right-click on the This PC (or Computer) icon, then click Properties → Advanced System Settings → Environmental Variables.
Under System Variables select Path, then click Edit.
Add an entry for C:\Gradle\gradle-8.12\bin.
Click OK to save.
Alternatively, you can add the environment variable GRADLE_HOME and point this to the unzipped distribution.
Instead of adding a specific version of Gradle to your Path, you can add %GRADLE_HOME%\bin to your Path.
When upgrading to a different version of Gradle, just change the GRADLE_HOME environment variable.
Verify the installation
Open a console (or a Windows command prompt) and run gradle -v to run gradle and display the version, e.g.:
❯ gradle -v ------------------------------------------------------------ Gradle 8.12 ------------------------------------------------------------ Build time: 2024-06-17 18:10:00 UTC Revision: 6028379bb5a8512d0b2c1be6403543b79825ef08 Kotlin: 1.9.23 Groovy: 3.0.21 Ant: Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.13 compiled on January 4 2023 Launcher JVM: 11.0.23 (Eclipse Adoptium 11.0.23+9) Daemon JVM: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-11.jdk/Contents/Home (no JDK specified, using current Java home) OS: Mac OS X 14.5 aarch64
You can verify the integrity of the Gradle distribution by downloading the SHA-256 file (available from the releases page) and following these verification instructions.