Install gradle with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• gradle

Project history

Gradle's own documentation describes builds as projects and tasks configured by build scripts written in Groovy or Kotlin. The project structure convention centers on `settings.gradle(.kts)`, `build.gradle(.kts)`, and the wrapper scripts `gradlew` and `gradlew.bat`.

Gradle 1.0, released on June 12, 2012 according to the official release index, was framed by its release notes as a major step for Gradle and build tools. That release replaced Ivy-based dependency resolution with a Gradle dependency engine, improved dependency caching, added daemon performance work, expanded Java quality plugins, and emphasized enterprise-scale builds.

Gradle's official evolution article summarizes the major-version arc: 2.0 improved performance, memory efficiency, dependency management, and incremental build support; 3.0 enabled the daemon by default and improved IDE/Kotlin DSL support; 4.0 made build cache production-ready for Java and Groovy compilation; 5.0 made Kotlin DSL production-ready and added Java 11 support; 6.0 introduced enhanced dependency management metadata; 7.0 focused on incremental builds, dependency verification, and Java 16 support; 8.0 emphasized configuration-cache behavior and parallelism.

Adoption history

Gradle spread through JVM projects because it offered programmable build logic while still providing conventions through plugins. Android adoption made Gradle part of a massive mobile build ecosystem: Android Studio projects expose Gradle wrapper files, settings files, top-level and module-level build files, and Gradle properties as standard project artifacts.

The wrapper changed package-manager expectations. A developer may install `gradle` with Homebrew to bootstrap or run ad hoc builds, but many repositories prefer `./gradlew` so the checked-in wrapper properties select the project Gradle version. This made Gradle unusually friendly to mixed-version repositories and CI environments.

Gradle also became a platform for build-performance tooling. Official docs and adjacent Gradle products emphasize build scans, daemon reuse, build cache, configuration cache, and profiling workflows, reflecting a culture where the build tool is both dependency resolver and performance-critical infrastructure.

How it is used

At the command line, developers run tasks such as `gradle build`, `gradle test`, or `gradle clean build`, but Gradle documentation recommends the wrapper for most existing projects. Build scripts define tasks, plugins, dependencies, repositories, and project conventions.

The common files are package-ecosystem signals: `settings.gradle` or `settings.gradle.kts` defines root and subprojects; `build.gradle` or `build.gradle.kts` defines build logic; `gradle.properties` configures Gradle or project properties; and files under the Gradle user home configure user-wide behavior such as init scripts.

Gradle's DSL and plugin system make it a host for ecosystems rather than only a command runner. Java, Groovy, Kotlin, Scala, Android, C/C++, JavaScript, and Kotlin Multiplatform projects all appear in the official documentation as supported languages or frameworks.

Why package nerds care

Gradle is significant to package nerds because it is itself a package manager, dependency resolver, task scheduler, and project metadata interpreter. A Gradle installation can decide which artifacts are fetched, how versions are aligned, when tasks are up to date, and which generated outputs are reproducible.

It also forces distribution questions: should a system package provide one Gradle CLI, should a project use the wrapper, how should checksums and distribution URLs be audited, and how should old major versions remain available when enterprise or Android builds cannot immediately migrate?

For Homebrew, the unversioned `gradle` formula serves users who want a general CLI installation, while versioned formulae such as `gradle@7` and `gradle@8` serve projects pinned to a major line.

Timeline

• 2009: The official release index lists Gradle 0.8.
• 2012: Gradle 1.0 released with rebuilt dependency resolution, improved dependency cache, daemon performance work, quality plugins, and Tooling API emphasis.
• 2014: Gradle 2.0 improved performance, memory efficiency, dependency management, and incremental build support.
• 2016: Gradle 3.0 enabled the daemon by default and improved IDE/Kotlin DSL support.
• 2017: Gradle 4.0 made build cache production-ready for Java and Groovy compilation.
• 2018: Gradle 5.0 made Kotlin DSL production-ready and supported Java 11.
• 2019: Gradle 6.0 introduced enhanced dependency management with a new metadata format.
• 2021: Gradle 7.0 added Java 16 support, Apple Silicon support, and experimental version catalogs.
• 2023: Gradle 8.0 expanded configuration-cache execution behavior and Java toolchain configuration.

Related projects

• Apache Ant, Apache Maven, Ivy, Make, SCons, and Bazel are adjacent build and dependency-management tools.
• Android Gradle Plugin and Android Studio are major downstream Gradle ecosystem pieces.
• Develocity, Gradle Build Scan, Gradle Profiler, and Gradle Plugin Portal are closely related Gradle ecosystem services or tools.
• Groovy and Kotlin are central to Gradle's build-script DSL story.

Sources

• https://blog.gradle.org/gradles-evolution-a-conversation-with-adam-murdoch
• https://docs.gradle.org/1.0/release-notes.html
• https://docs.gradle.org/7.0/release-notes.html
• https://docs.gradle.org/8.0/release-notes.html
• https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/gradle_basics.html
• https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/userguide.html
• https://github.com/gradle/gradle
• https://gradle.org/releases/