gradle.properties fail reading property with dot notation

Question

I receive an error reading a property with dot notation from gradle.properties. Why?

If I use version instead of build.version everything is OK. Thanks in advance.

FAIL CASE

gradle.properties

build.version=2.0.1

build.gradle

apply plugin: 'java'

task testProperties << {
    println "***************** TEST **********************"
    println build.version
    println "*********************************************"
}

EXECUTION

... $ gradle devTest
:devTest
***************** TEST **********************
:devTest FAILED

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* Where:
Build file '..../build.gradle' line: 50

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':devTest'.
> Could not find property 'version' on task ':build'.

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or<br> --debug option to get more log output.

BUILD FAILED

SUCCES CASE

gradle.properties

version=2.0.1

build.gradle

apply plugin: 'java'

task testProperties << {
    println "***************** TEST **********************"
    println version
    println "*********************************************"
}

EXECUTION

... $ gradle devTest

:devTest

***************** TEST **********************
2.0.1

*********************************************

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Answer 1

You cannot use properties with a dot in this way because Groovy thinks it's a version property of the build instance. If you want a property to contain a dot then you should use it in the following way:

println rootProject.properties['build.version']