Gradle .gitignore template

.gradle is the build tool's project local cache. It holds file hashes for up to date checks, the configuration cache, daemon registry entries and task history. All of it is keyed to absolute paths on this machine, so a copy from someone else's checkout produces cache misses at best. Deleting it costs one slower build.

build is the output directory, and because the rule is unanchored it covers every module in a multi project build without listing them. That is convenient and it is also why the next two negations exist. The same convenience applies to any directory named build anywhere in the tree, whether or not the build tool created it, which is the trade the unanchored form makes.

The wrapper negations are the point of this template. The wrapper is a small script plus a jar plus a properties file, committed on purpose so that anyone who clones the repository can run ./gradlew and get the exact build tool version the project expects, without installing anything. Ignoring *.jar in a Java project would take the jar with it, so the negation puts it back. The properties file records which version to fetch and its checksum.

The two source directory negations exist because the build rule matches at any depth. A source tree containing a package named build would otherwise be ignored, which is a silent and confusing failure, so the template protects the main and test source trees explicitly.

Committing a binary jar makes some people uncomfortable, and it is worth knowing why the practice is recommended anyway: the wrapper properties file carries a checksum, so a clone can verify the jar it has against the version the project declared, and the jar itself only downloads and launches the real distribution.