I want to use Gradle, but I do not want to install it. It is possible to compile a project using its Gradle wrapper. If you already have a Gradle project, you can initialize a new project using the existing Gradle wrapper: /path/to/existing/project/gradlew init.
But to create your first project, you must, according to the Gradle docs, install Gradle, and never use it since then.
How do I get (download/create/initialize) a Gradle wrapper without installing Gradle?
I wrote a script to get a Gradle wrapper without installing Gradle.
File createwrapper:
#!/bin/bash
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
version='6.2.1'
else
version=$1
fi
rm -rf $version
mkdir -p $version
mkdir -p gradle/wrapper
pushd gradle/wrapper
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gradle/gradle/master/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
cat >gradle-wrapper.properties <<EOL
distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
distributionPath=wrapper/dists
distributionUrl=https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-${version}-bin.zip
zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
EOL
popd
pushd $version
echo -e "1n1nn" | java -cp ../gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar org.gradle.wrapper.GradleWrapperMain init
popd
After running e.g. createwrapper 8.9 (the parameter is a Gradle version), you get a subdirectory, 8.9 in this case, with a Gradle project in it. What’s important, that project has a Gradle wrapper that you can use to init a new project.
What does the script do: it downloads the latest gradle-wrapper.jar, gives it gradle-wrapper.properties with the desired version, and invokes the init task from that jar, choosing the 1st option (2 times) and accepting the default project name (see the echo -e parameter). It is possible that in the future option numbers will change their meaning and a longer sequence of options will be required.
What you get:
$ tree
.
├── 6.2.1
│ ├── build.gradle
│ ├── gradle
│ │ └── wrapper
│ │ ├── gradle-wrapper.jar
│ │ └── gradle-wrapper.properties
│ ├── gradlew
│ ├── gradlew.bat
│ └── settings.gradle
├── 8.9
│ ├── build.gradle.kts
│ ├── gradle
│ │ ├── libs.versions.toml
│ │ └── wrapper
│ │ ├── gradle-wrapper.jar
│ │ └── gradle-wrapper.properties
│ ├── gradlew
│ ├── gradlew.bat
│ └── settings.gradle.kts
├── createwrapper
└── gradle
└── wrapper
├── gradle-wrapper.jar
├── gradle-wrapper.jar.1
└── gradle-wrapper.properties
(As you see, in one project there is build.gradle, in the other there is build.gradle.kts, this must be because the same numbers have different meanings in different versions.)
Useful link: http://blog.vorona.ca/init-gradle-wrapper-without-gradle.html (does not work for Gradle 8.9)