GRADLE_MIGRATION.md

Gradle Build Migration

This project has been migrated from Apache Ant to Gradle while maintaining identical build output and cross-platform compatibility.

Prerequisites

• Java 21 or later
• Gradle 9.0 or later installed on the system

Available Tasks

• gradle dist — Build complete distribution (default task)
• gradle clean — Clean build artifacts
• gradle jar — Build only the JAR file
• gradle distclean — Remove only the dist directory
• gradle forceClean — Force clean all artifacts including .class files

Usage

Important: Run all commands from the project root directory.

Build Distribution

gradle dist

Clean and Rebuild

gradle clean dist

Key Features

• Always Clean Builds: Every build starts fresh with no caching
• Cross-Platform: Automatically detects Windows/Unix and copies appropriate scripts
• Modular Runtime: Creates custom JRE with jlink in dist/bin/

Output Structure

The dist/ directory contains:

• bin/ — Custom JRE with java executable
• lib/ — Required JAR files
• catalog/, srx/, xmlfilter/ — Configuration files
• licenses/, LICENSE — License information
• Platform-specific scripts (.sh or .cmd)

Migration from Ant

Ant Command	Gradle Equivalent
ant dist	gradle dist
ant clean	gradle clean
ant compile	gradle jar
ant distclean	gradle distclean

Key Improvements

• Efficient File Copying: Uses glob patterns instead of copying files individually
• Better Task Dependencies: Improved build orchestration with mustRunAfter
• Enhanced Cleanup: Automatic removal of temporary directories
• Modern Tooling: Better IDE integration and plugin ecosystem
• Cross-Platform jlink: Automatic path separator detection