Gradle Versions Plugin

In the spirit of the Maven Versions Plugin, this plugin provides a task to determine which dependencies have updates. Additionally, the plugin checks for updates to Gradle itself.

Table of contents

• Usage
  • plugins block
  • buildscript block
  • Using a Gradle init script
  • Related plugins
  • Known issues
• dependencyUpdates
  • Multi-project build
  • Revisions
  • RejectVersionsIf and componentSelection
  • Gradle Release Channel
  • Constraints
  • Kotlin DSL
  • Try out the samples
  • Report format

Usage

You can add this plugin to your top-level build script using the following configuration:

plugins block:

plugins {
  id "com.github.ben-manes.versions" version "$version"
}

or via the

buildscript block:

apply plugin: "com.github.ben-manes.versions"

buildscript {
  repositories {
    gradlePluginPortal()
  }

  dependencies {
    classpath "com.github.ben-manes:gradle-versions-plugin:$version"
  }
}

Using a Gradle init script

You can also transparently add the plugin to every Gradle project that you run via a Gradle init script:

$HOME/.gradle/init.d/add-versions-plugin.gradle

initscript {
  repositories {
     gradlePluginPortal()
  }

  dependencies {
    classpath 'com.github.ben-manes:gradle-versions-plugin:+'
  }
}

allprojects {
  apply plugin: com.github.benmanes.gradle.versions.VersionsPlugin

  tasks.named("dependencyUpdates").configure {
    // configure the task, for example wrt. resolution strategies
  }
}

$HOME/.gradle/init.d/add-versions-plugin.init.gradle.kts

import com.github.benmanes.gradle.versions.updates.DependencyUpdatesTask

initscript {
  repositories {
    gradlePluginPortal()
  }
  dependencies {
    classpath("com.github.ben-manes:gradle-versions-plugin:+")
  }
}

allprojects {
  apply<com.github.benmanes.gradle.versions.VersionsPlugin>()

  tasks.named<DependencyUpdatesTask>("dependencyUpdates").configure {
    // configure the task, for example wrt. resolution strategies
  }
}

Related Plugins

You may also wish to explore additional functionality provided by,

• version-catalog-update-plugin
• gradle-versions-filter-plugin
• gradle-upgrade-interactive
• gradle-use-latest-versions
• gradle-update-checker
• gradle-libraries-plugin
• gradle-update-notifier
• refreshVersions
• update-versions-gradle-plugin
• caupain

Workarounds for related Gradle Issues

• https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/24636: setting the flag org.gradle.configuration-cache.problems=warn in gradle.properties causes the dependency check to fail to find dependencies with message No dependencies found. Comment out that line until the upstream issue with Gradle is fixed.
• In Gradle 9+, parallel execution is incompatible with having one project's task resolving another project configuration's dependencies. This requires obtaining an internal lock not available to plugin developers, but is relied on by native plugins (e.g. for IDE support). This simply requires passing the --no-parallel flag when running the dependencyUpdates task, which allows you to continue to benefit from the speedup in other build scenarios.

Tasks

dependencyUpdates

Displays a report of the project dependencies that are up-to-date, exceed the latest version found, have upgrades, or failed to be resolved. When a dependency cannot be resolved the exception is logged at the info level.

To refresh the cache (i.e. fetch the new releases/versions of the dependencies), use flag --refresh-dependencies.

Gradle updates are checked for on the current, release-candidate and nightly release channels. The plaintext report displays gradle updates as a separate category in breadcrumb style (excluding nightly builds). The xml and json reports include information about all three release channels, whether a release is considered an update with respect to the running (executing) gradle instance, whether an update check on a release channel has failed, as well as a reason field explaining failures or missing information. The update check may be disabled using the checkForGradleUpdate flag.

Multi-project build

In a multi-project build, running this task in the root project will generate a consolidated/merged report for dependency updates in all subprojects. Alternatively, you can run the task separately in each subproject to generate separate reports for each subproject.

Revisions

The revision task property controls the [Ivy resolution strategy][ivy_resolution_strategy] for determining what constitutes the latest version of a dependency. Maven's dependency metadata does not distinguish between milestone and release versions. The following strategies are natively supported by Gradle:

• release: selects the latest release
• milestone: select the latest version being either a milestone or a release (default)
• integration: selects the latest revision of the dependency module (such as SNAPSHOT)

The strategy can be specified either on the task or as a system property for ad hoc usage:

gradle dependencyUpdates -Drevision=release --no-parallel

RejectVersionsIf and componentSelection

To further define which version to accept, you need to define what means an unstable version. Sadly, there are no agreed standard on this, but this is a good starting point:

def isNonStable = { String version ->
  def stableKeyword = ['RELEASE', 'FINAL', 'GA'].any { it -> version.toUpperCase().contains(it) }
  def regex = /^[0-9,.v-]+(-r)?$/
  return !stableKeyword && !(version ==~ regex)
}

fun isNonStable(version: String): Boolean {
    val stableKeyword = listOf("RELEASE", "FINAL", "GA").any { version.uppercase().contains(it) }
    val regex = "^[0-9,.v-]+(-r)?$".toRegex()
    val isStable = stableKeyword || regex.matches(version)
    return isStable.not()
}

You can then configure [Component Selection Rules][component_selection_rules]. The current version of a component can be retrieved with the currentVersion property. You can either use the simplified syntax rejectVersionIf { ... } or configure a complete resolution strategy.

Example 1: reject all non stable versions

// https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin
tasks.named("dependencyUpdates").configure {
  rejectVersionIf {
    isNonStable(it.candidate.version)
  }
}

Example 2: disallow release candidates as upgradable versions from stable versions

// https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin
tasks.named("dependencyUpdates").configure {
  rejectVersionIf {
    isNonStable(it.candidate.version) && !isNonStable(it.currentVersion)
  }
}

Example 3: using the full syntax

// https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin
tasks.named("dependencyUpdates").configure {
  resolutionStrategy {
    componentSelection {
      all {
        if (isNonStable(it.candidate.version) && !isNonStable(it.currentVersion)) {
          reject('Release candidate')
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Example 1: reject all non stable versions

import com.github.benmanes.gradle.versions.updates.DependencyUpdatesTask

// https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin
tasks.withType<DependencyUpdatesTask> {
  rejectVersionIf {
    isNonStable(candidate.version)
  }
}

Example 2: disallow release candidates as upgradable versions from stable versions

import com.github.benmanes.gradle.versions.updates.DependencyUpdatesTask

// https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin
tasks.withType<DependencyUpdatesTask> {
  rejectVersionIf {
    isNonStable(candidate.version) && !isNonStable(currentVersion)
  }
}

Example 3: using the full syntax

import com.github.benmanes.gradle.versions.updates.DependencyUpdatesTask

// https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin
tasks.withType<DependencyUpdatesTask> {
  resolutionStrategy {
    componentSelection {
      all(Action<ComponentSelectionWithCurrent> {
        if (isNonStable(candidate.version) && !isNonStable(currentVersion)) {
          reject("Release candidate")
        }
      })
    }
  }
}

Gradle Release Channel

The gradleReleaseChannel task property controls which release channel of the Gradle project is used to check for available Gradle updates. Options are:

• current
• release-candidate
• nightly

The default is release-candidate. The value can be changed as shown below:

dependencyUpdates.gradleReleaseChannel="current"

Gradle Versions Api Base URL

The gradleVersionsApiBaseUrl task property provides an option for customization of the Gradle versions service URL. If not specified, the default value https://services.gradle.org/versions/ is used. The customization can be useful in restricted environments without direct internet access and proxy availability.

Constraints

If you use constraints, for example to define a BOM using the java-platform plugin or to manage transitive dependency versions, you can enable checking of constraints by specifying the checkConstraints attribute of the dependencyUpdates task. If you want to check external constraints (defined in init scripts or by Gradle since 7.3.2) you can do so by specifying the checkBuildEnvironmentConstraints attribute of the dependencyUpdates task.

tasks.named("dependencyUpdates").configure {
    checkConstraints = true
    checkBuildEnvironmentConstraints = true
}

Kotlin DSL

If using Gradle's [kotlin-dsl][kotlin_dsl], you could configure the dependencyUpdates like this:

import com.github.benmanes.gradle.versions.updates.DependencyUpdatesTask

tasks.named<DependencyUpdatesTask>("dependencyUpdates").configure {

  // optional parameters
  checkForGradleUpdate = true
  outputFormatter = "json"
  outputDir = "build/dependencyUpdates"
  reportfileName = "report"
}

Note: Do use the plugins { .. } syntax if you use the Kotlin DSL.

Configuration filter

You can change which dependency configurations the plugin checks for updates like this:

// https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin
tasks.named("dependencyUpdates").configure {
  filterConfigurations {
    it.name.equals("runtimeClasspath") || it.name.equals("compileClasspath")
  }
}

Try out the samples

Have a look at examples/groovy and examples/kotlin

# Publish the latest version of the plugin to mavenLocal()
$ ./gradlew publishToMavenLocal

# Try out the samples
$ ./gradlew -p examples/groovy dependencyUpdate
$ ./gradlew -p examples/kotlin dependencyUpdate

Report format

The task property outputFormatter controls the report output format. The following values are supported:

• "plain": format output file as plain text (default)
• "json": format output file as json text
• "xml": format output file as xml text, can be used by other plugins (e.g. sonar)
• "html": format output file as html
• Closure: will be called with the result of the dependency update analysis

You can also set multiple output formats using comma as the separator:

gradle dependencyUpdates -Drevision=release -DoutputFormatter=json,xml,html --no-parallel

The task property outputDir controls the output directory for the report file(s). The directory will be created if it does not exist. The default value is set to build/dependencyUpdates

gradle dependencyUpdates -Drevision=release -DoutputFormatter=json -DoutputDir=/any/path/with/permission --no-parallel

Last the property reportfileName sets the filename (without extension) of the generated report. It defaults to report. The extension will be set according to the used output format.

gradle dependencyUpdates -Drevision=release -DoutputFormatter=json -DreportfileName=myCustomReport --no-parallel

This displays a report to the console.

------------------------------------------------------------
: Project Dependency Updates (report to plain text file)
------------------------------------------------------------

The following dependencies are using the latest integration version:
 - backport-util-concurrent:backport-util-concurrent:3.1
 - backport-util-concurrent:backport-util-concurrent-java12:3.1

The following dependencies exceed the version found at the integration revision level:
 - com.google.guava:guava [99.0-SNAPSHOT <- 16.0-rc1]
     https://code.google.com/p/guava-libraries
 - com.google.guava:guava-tests [99.0-SNAPSHOT <- 16.0-rc1]