Gradle - creating Application zip

To create a zip with the project jar, all transitive dependencies and a bunch of scripts, just paste this into your build.gradle:

task zip(type: Zip) {
    from 'src/main/scripts' // adds scripts
    into('lib') {
        from jar // adds jar produced by this project
        from configurations.runtimeClasspath // adds all transitive dependencies
    }
}

artifacts {
   archives zip
}

Then, a script which runs your app:

#!/bin/bash
set -e -o pipefail
CP=`ls lib/*.jar|tr '\n' ':'`
JAVA_OPTS="-Xmx3G $JAVA_OPTS"
java $JAVA_OPTS -cp $CP your.Main "$@"

However, even simpler is to use the application plugin - it will create a zip and a tar of your app, all transitive dependencies and will also automatically generate scripts which run your app:

plugins {
    id 'java'
    id 'application'
}
application {
    mainClassName = "your.Main"
}

Written on October 1, 2021