How to Install Gradle on Debian 10

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 describes how to install Gradle on Debian 10 Linux.

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.

Execute the following command to install the OpenJDK
package:

sudo apt updatesudo apt install default-jdk

Verify the Java installation by running:

java -version

The output should look something like this:

openjdk version "11.0.6" 2020-01-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.6+10-post-Debian-1deb10u1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.6+10-post-Debian-1deb10u1, 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.

Run the following wget
command to download the Gradle binary file:

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

Once the download is completed, extract the zip 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:

/etc/profile.d/gradle.sh

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 running 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 (Debian 11.0.6+10-post-Debian-1deb10u1)
OS:           Linux 4.19.0-6-amd64 amd64

That’s it. You have successfully installed Gradle on your Debian 10, and you can start using it.

Conclusion #

We’ve shown you how to install Gradle on Debian 10, Buster. 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.