Gradle 2.3 vs. 2.2.1: assemble and distribution plugin difference

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1

This is the ‘’‘build.gradle’’’:

apply plugin: 'distribution'
ext.archivesBaseName = "my-plugin"
  version = "1.0"
  task myPluginTar(type: Tar) {
  baseName
       = archivesBaseName
  includeEmptyDirs = false
  classifier
     = 'myplugin'
  from('.') {
    include 'plugin1.txt'
    include 'plugin2.txt'
  }
  destinationDir(libsDir)
}
  artifacts {
  archives myPluginTar
}
  distributions {
  myplugin {
    baseName = archivesBaseName+"-myplugin"
    contents {
      from(libsDir) {
        include myPluginTar.archiveName
      }
    }
  }
}
  mypluginDistTar {
  compression = Compression.GZIP
}

Run: ‘’‘gradle assemble’’’

Under Gradle 2.2.1, it creates:

.
├── build
│   └── libs
│  
   └── my-plugin-1.0-myplugin.tar
...

Under Gradle 2.3, it creates:

.
├── build
│   ├── distributions
│   │   ├── my-plugin-myplugin-1.0.tgz
│   │   └── my-plugin-myplugin-1.0.zip
│   └── libs
│  
   └── my-plugin-1.0-myplugin.tar
...

There are two noticeable differences: 1. The gradle 2.3 assemble task not only assembles the artifacts, it also builds the distribution, is this expected with 2.3? 2. The gradle 2.3 assemble task builds both the tgz and the zip, is this expected with 2.3?

The release notes say that the application plugin leverages the distribution plugin, but I did not take that to mean that the distribution plugin had changed too. If that’s the case, please update the release notes to clarify. Thank you.

2

The first answer of this question holds the key to understanding the difference between Gradle 2.2.1 and Gradle 2.3 when it comes to the example presented in the question: http://forums.gradle.org/gradle/topics/where-is-the-assemble-task-documented

The ‘’‘assemble’’’ task is a life cycle task. It does not do much by itself. Other tasks attach themselves to it. In Gradle 2.2.1, the distribution tasks (the family of distTar and distZip tasks) were not attached to the ‘’‘assemble’’’ task. In Gradle 2.3, they are.