Adding classpath entries using Gradle's Application plugin

Question

I'm using Gradle's Application plugin to generate the install for a standalone java application. I have a configuration file I need to put on the classpath but I can't seem to get it to generate the classpath correctly in the sh/bat files. This configuration file needs to be located outside of the jar.

The conf file is in the directory /src/dist/conf/ so when I run installApp it installs it under a conf directory like this $APP_HOME/conf.

I tried adding this directory to the claspath like this:

startScripts.classpath.add(files('$APP_HOME/conf')) 

but when I look at the classpath in the sh/bat files it adds an entry that looks like this:

$APP_HOME/lib/conf 

How do I tell gradle to drop the lib section for this entry?

Answer 1

Another workaround for this issue (GRADLE-2333) is proposed by Alexandr Fadeev here.

Here is (a bit modified) Alexandr's solution that solved the problem for me on Gradle-1.6:

startScripts {   classpath += files('src/dist/XxxAPlaceHolderForAConfigxxX')   doLast {     def windowsScriptFile = file getWindowsScript()     def unixScriptFile    = file getUnixScript()     windowsScriptFile.text = windowsScriptFile.text.replace('%APP_HOME%\\lib\\XxxAPlaceHolderForAConfigxxX', '%APP_HOME%\\config')     unixScriptFile.text  = unixScriptFile.text.replace('$APP_HOME/lib/XxxAPlaceHolderForAConfigxxX', '$APP_HOME/config')   } } 

It's a bit uglier than Josh's solution, but it allows you to preserve the exact directory layout (/src/dist/conf and $APP_HOME/conf) mentioned in the original question.

Answer 2

The easiest way to get a file onto the class path is to put it into src/main/resources. src/dist is for adding files to the distribution (i.e. zip file), not to the Jar/class path.