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Getting Started

plugins {
  java
  id("com.gradleup.shadow") version "<version>"
}

plugins {
  id 'java'
  id 'com.gradleup.shadow' version '<version>'
}

Alternatively, the plugin can be added to the buildscript classpath and applied:

buildscript {
  repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    gradlePluginPortal()
  }
  dependencies {
    classpath("com.gradleup.shadow:shadow-gradle-plugin:<version>")
  }
}
// `apply plugin` stuff are used with `buildscript`.
apply(plugin = "java")
apply(plugin = "com.gradleup.shadow")

buildscript {
  repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    gradlePluginPortal()
  }
  dependencies {
    classpath 'com.gradleup.shadow:shadow-gradle-plugin:<version>'
  }
}
// `apply plugin` stuff are used with `buildscript`.
apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'com.gradleup.shadow'

Snapshots of the development version are available in Central Portal Snapshots. 

buildscript {
  repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    maven("https://central.sonatype.com/repository/maven-snapshots/")
  }
  dependencies {
    // You can get the latest snapshot version from `VERSION_NAME` declared in https://github.com/GradleUp/shadow/blob/main/gradle.properties
    classpath("com.gradleup.shadow:shadow-gradle-plugin:<version>")
  }
}
// `apply plugin` stuff are used with `buildscript`.
apply(plugin = "java")
apply(plugin = "com.gradleup.shadow")

Snapshots of the development version are available in Central Portal Snapshots. 

buildscript {
  repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    maven { url = 'https://central.sonatype.com/repository/maven-snapshots/' }
  }
  dependencies {
    // You can get the latest snapshot version from `VERSION_NAME` declared in https://github.com/GradleUp/shadow/blob/main/gradle.properties
    classpath 'com.gradleup.shadow:shadow-gradle-plugin:<version>'
  }
}
// `apply plugin` stuff are used with `buildscript`.
apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'com.gradleup.shadow'

NOTE: The correct maven coordinates for each version of Shadow can be found by referencing the Gradle Plugin documentation here.

Shadow is a reactive plugin. This means that applying Shadow by itself will perform no configuration on your project. Instead, Shadow reacts This means, that for most users, the java or groovy plugins must be explicitly applied to have the desired effect.

Default Java/Kotlin/Groovy Tasks

In the presence of the java, org.jetbrains.kotlin.jvm or groovy plugins (that apply JavaPlugin in their build logic), Shadow will automatically configure the following behavior:

  • Adds a ShadowJar task to the project.
  • Adds a shadow configuration to the project.
  • Adds a shadow variant to the project.
  • Adds a shadow component to the project.
  • Configures the ShadowJar task to include all sources from the project’s main sourceSet.
  • Configures the ShadowJar task to bundle all dependencies from the runtimeClasspath configuration.
  • Configures the classifier attribute of the ShadowJar task to be 'all' .
  • Configures the ShadowJar task to generate a Manifest with:
    • Inheriting all configuration from the standard Jar task.
    • Adds a Class-Path attribute to the Manifest that appends all dependencies from the shadow configuration
  • Configures the ShadowJar task to exclude any JAR index or cryptographic signature files matching the following patterns:
    • META-INF/INDEX.LIST
    • META-INF/*.SF
    • META-INF/*.DSA
    • META-INF/*.RSA
    • META-INF/versions/**/module-info.class
    • module-info.class
  • Creates and registers the shadow component in the project (used for integrating with maven-publish).

ShadowJar Command Line options

Sometimes, a user wants to declare the value of an exposed task property on the command line instead of the build script. Passing property values on the command line is particularly helpful if they change more frequently.
Here are the options that can be passed to the shadowJar:

--add-multi-release-attribute       Adds the multi-release attribute to the manifest if any dependencies contain it.
--no-add-multi-release-attribute    Disables option --add-multi-release-attribute.
--enable-auto-relocation            Enables auto relocation of packages in the dependencies.
--no-enable-auto-relocation         Disables option --enable-auto-relocation.
--fail-on-duplicate-entries         Fails build if the ZIP entries in the shadowed JAR are duplicate.
--no-fail-on-duplicate-entries      Disables option --fail-on-duplicate-entries.
--main-class                        Main class attribute to add to manifest.
--minimize-jar                      Minimizes the jar by removing unused classes.
--no-minimize-jar                   Disables option --minimize-jar.
--relocation-prefix                 Prefix used for auto relocation of packages in the dependencies.
--rerun                             Causes the task to be re-run even if up-to-date.

Also, you can view more information about the ShadowJar task by running the following command:

./gradlew -q help --task shadowJar

Refer to listing command line options.