How to set up Kotlin's byte code version in Gradle project to Java 8?

Question

In Kotlin project, what is a proper Gradle script to make sure my classes will be compiled to byte code ver 52 (Java 8)?

For some reason my classes are compiled as ver 50 (Java 6) even though I set up source and target compatibility. At least this is what Idea shows me when I open file from directory build/classes/... after building the project.

My current set up looks like this.

buildscript {     ext {         kotlinVersion = '1.0.5-2'         springBootVersion = '1.4.2.RELEASE'     }     repositories { mavenCentral() }     dependencies {         classpath("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-gradle-plugin:${springBootVersion}")         classpath("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:${kotlinVersion}")     } }  apply plugin: 'kotlin' apply plugin: 'org.springframework.boot'  tasks.withType(JavaCompile) {     sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8     targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8 }  ## I also tried this and it hasn't helped #sourceCompatibility = 1.8 #targetCompatibility = 1.8  repositories { mavenCentral() }  dependencies {     compile("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:${kotlinVersion}")     compile('org.springframework.cloud:spring-cloud-starter-stream-rabbit') }  dependencyManagement { imports { mavenBom "org.springframework.cloud:spring-cloud-dependencies:Camden.SR2" } } 

Answer 1

As Mark pointed out on Debop's answer, you have to configure both compileKotlin and compileTestKotlin. You can do it without duplication this way:

tasks.withType(org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile).all {   kotlinOptions {     jvmTarget = "1.8"   } } 

For a pure Kotlin project, I don't think the options sourceCompatibility and targetCompatibility do anything, so you may be able to remove them.

Ref: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/using-gradle.html#compiler-options

Answer 2

In case someone uses gradle with kotlin-dsl instead of groovy:

import org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile  // compile bytecode to java 8 (default is java 6) tasks.withType<KotlinCompile> {     kotlinOptions.jvmTarget = "1.8" }