Gradle is a project automation build tool based on the concepts of Apache Ant and Apache Maven, which supports dependency management and multi-project, similar to Maven, but simpler and lighter than it. It uses a Groovy-based domain-specific language to declare project settings, rather than traditional XML.

Gradle 7.6 is now available, and this version includes building and running code with Java 19, flags to rerun tasks individually, new strongly typed dependency blocks for JVM test suites, and a pluggable system for Java toolchain configuration.

New features and usability improvements

Added support for Java 19

Gradle 7.6 supports compiling, testing and running on Java 19.

Introducing strong typing to the JVM test suite dependencies piece

JVM test suite dependencies Blocks now use a strongly typed API. Made the build logic clearer and improved accessibility in the IDE, especially when using the Kotlin DSL.

Support for downloading the Java toolchain from any repository

Starting with Gradle 7.6, Gradle can download the JVM toolchain from any repository. By default, Gradle downloads the toolchain from Adoptium/AdoptOpenJDK.

Added support for incremental compilation after a failed compilation

Gradle supports Java incremental compilation and Groovy incremental compilation by default as an optional experimental feature.

In previous versions, a compilation failure would cause the next compilation to perform a full recompilation. Starting with Gradle 7.6, Java and Groovy incremental compilation works even after failing.

Introduced support for Java 9+ network debugging

You can run a Java test or application subprocess with the debug option to accept debugger client connections over the network. If the debug option specifies only a port, but not a host address, the set of accepted connections depends on the current Java version:

• Prior to Java 9, the debugger client accepted calls fromany machineConnection.
• Starting with Java 9, the debugger client only accepts calls fromhostConnection.

This release adds a new property to theJavaDebugOptions:hostwhich allows specifying the debugger host address and port.

general improvement

Introduce –rerun flag for individual tasks

All tasks can now use the –rerun option, which works like –rerun-tasks, but –rerun only affects a single task.

Network timeout configuration for wrapper downloads

The network timeout for downloading Gradle wrapper files can now be configured, the default is 10000 milliseconds and can be changed in a number of ways.

For more functions, please check the update announcement: https://docs.gradle.org/7.6/release-notes.html