How to declare dependencies of a Gradle custom task?

Question

If I've created a custom task:

class MyTask extends DefaultTask {
   ...
}

I can at another time create an instance and declare dependencies:

task(["type": MyTask, "dependsOn": importantThing], "MyTaskName")

However, it seems a bit weird to separate the task definition from the declaration of dependencies. That is, it seems like everything defining the task should be in one place, or else it would be easy to instantiate the task without the right dependencies. Is there some better way to do this?

Answer 1

Tasks should be generic and self-contained. They should only operate on their own input properties, and should not assume existence of other tasks. Declaring tasks and their dependencies is the responsibility of build scripts and/or plugins.