How to Install Gradle on CentOS 8

Gradle is a powerful and flexible build tool used primarily for Java projects, combining the best features of Ant and Maven . Unlike its predecessors, which use XML for scripting, Gradle uses Groovy , a dynamic, object-oriented programming language for the Java platform to define the project and build scripts.

This article explains how to install Gradle on CentOS 8. We’ll download the latest release of Gradle from their official website.

Prerequisites #

The instructions assume that you are logged in as root or user with sudo privileges .

Installing OpenJDK #

Gradle requires Java SE 8 or later to be installed on the server.

Enter the following command to install the OpenJDK package:

sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel

Verify the Java installation by printing the Java version :

java -version

The output should look something like this:

openjdk version "11.0.6" 2020-01-14 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.6+10-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.6+10-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)

Downloading Gradle #

At the time of writing this article, the latest version of Gradle is 6.3. Before continuing with the next step, you should check the Gradle releases page to see if a newer version is available.

Download the Gradle binary file in the /tmp directory using the following wget command:

wget https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.3-bin.zip -P /tmp

Once the download is completed, unzip the file in the /opt/gradle directory:

sudo unzip -d /opt/gradle /tmp/gradle-*.zip

Verify that the Gradle files are extracted:

ls /opt/gradle/gradle-*

bin  init.d  lib  LICENSE  NOTICE  README

Setting up the Environment Variables #

Next, we’ll need to configure the PATH environment variable to include the Gradle bin directory. To do so, open your text editor and create a new file named gradle.sh inside of the /etc/profile.d directory:

sudo nano /etc/profile.d/gradle.sh

Paste the following configuration:

export GRADLE_HOME=/opt/gradle/gradle-6.3
export PATH=${GRADLE_HOME}/bin:${PATH}

Save and close the file. This script will be sourced at shell startup.

Make the script executable by issuing the following chmod command:

sudo chmod +x /etc/profile.d/gradle.sh

Load the environment variables using the source command :

source /etc/profile.d/gradle.sh

Verifying the Gradle Installation #

To validate that Gradle is installed properly run the following command which will display the Gradle version:

gradle -v

You should see something like the following:

Welcome to Gradle 6.3!

Here are the highlights of this release:
 - Java 14 support
 - Improved error messages for unexpected failures

For more details see https://docs.gradle.org/6.3/release-notes.html


------------------------------------------------------------
Gradle 6.3
------------------------------------------------------------

Build time:   2020-03-24 19:52:07 UTC
Revision:     bacd40b727b0130eeac8855ae3f9fd9a0b207c60

Kotlin:       1.3.70
Groovy:       2.5.10
Ant:          Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.7 compiled on September 1 2019
JVM:          11.0.6 (Oracle Corporation 11.0.6+10-LTS)
OS:           Linux 4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64 amd64

That’s it. You have installed the latest version of Gradle on your CentOS system, and you can start using it.

Conclusion #

We’ve shown you how to install Gradle on CentOS 8. You can now visit the official Gradle Documentation page and learn how to get started with Gradle.

If you hit a problem or have feedback, leave a comment below.

About the authors

Dejan Panovski

Dejan Panovski is the founder of Linuxize, an RHCSA-certified Linux system administrator and DevOps engineer based in Skopje, Macedonia. Author of 800+ Linux tutorials with 20+ years of experience turning complex Linux tasks into clear, reliable guides.

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