How to cache Gradle dependencies inside Gitlab CI

Question

I add cache property inside my gitlab-ci.yml file in my Android project.

cache:
  paths:
    - .gradle/wrapper
    - .gradle/caches

But in each pipeline when I run ./gradlew assemble, It downloads all gradle dependencies which cause slow build time.

Answer 1

I'm doing it like this

before_script:
  - export GRADLE_USER_HOME=`pwd`/.gradle

cache:
  paths:
    - .gradle/wrapper
    - .gradle/caches

Answer 2

Gitlab runner will not cache files outside of your project directory (e.g. ./gradle folder), So you need to cache all dependencies inside your project directory.

You can use -g command which specifies the gradle user home directory.

For example you can call ./gradlew -g /cache assemble to cache your dependencies in /cache folder.