Gradle Shadow

Shadow is an extension of the Gradle Jar task that optimizes FatJar/UberJar creation by using JarInputStream and JarOutputStream to copy file contents. This avoids the unnecessary I/O overhead of expanding jar files to disk before recombining them. Shadow provides the similar filtering, relocation, and transformation capabilities as the Maven Shade plugin. Starting with version 0.9, Shadow is a complete re-write based on core Gradle classes and concepts instead of a port of the Maven Shade code. Documentation for version 0.8 and prior can be found here.

Current Status

Gradle Plugins

https://plugins.gradle.org/plugin/com.github.johnrengelman.shadow

QuickStart

Applying Shadow Plugin to Project

Gradle 1.x and 2.0

buildscript {
  repositories { jcenter() }
  dependencies {
    classpath 'com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins:shadow:1.2.2'
  }
}

apply plugin: 'java' // or 'groovy'. Must be explicitly applied
apply plugin: 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'

Gradle 2.1 and higher

plugins {
  id 'java' // or 'groovy' Must be explicitly applied
  id 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow' version '1.2.2'
}

Note: Applying the ShadowPlugin to a project applies the majority of its settings via a callback on the application of other plugins. For example, the bulk of shadow is only added to the project if the java or groovy plugins are also added. Shadow will not add them automatically, but instead listens for their application and responds.

Using the default plugin task

$ gradle shadowJar //shadow the runtime configuration with project code into ./build/libs/

shadowJar uses the same default configurations as jar and additionally configures the classifier to be 'all'. Additionally, it creates a 'shadow' configuration and assigns the jar as an artifact of it. This configuration can be used to add dependencies that are excluded from the shadowing.

Integrating with Application Plugin

apply plugin: 'application'
apply plugin: 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'

Applying both shadow and application to a project will create a number of additional tasks to be created. These tasks mimic the application plugin but execute using the output of the shadowJar task.

Applying the application plugin will cause the shadowJar to include the Main-Class attribute in the manifest of the shadowJar output. This is configured via the mainClassName attribute from the application plugin.

Advanced Configuration

Configure MANIFEST file

By default, shadowJar.manifest inherits from jar.manifest.

jar {
  manifest {
    attributes("Implementation-Title": "Gradle", "Implementation-Version": version)
  }
}

Modifying the MANIFEST file

Append to the Jar MANIFEST. Values specified here, override the values in jar.manifest.

shadowJar {
  manifest {
    attributes 'Test-Entry': 'PASSED'
  }
}

Merging Service files

shadowJar {
  mergeServiceFiles()
}

OR

import com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.transformers.ServiceFileTransformer

shadowJar {
  transform(ServiceFileTransformer)
}

Merging service files in a different directory

shadowJar {
  mergeServiceFiles('META-INF/griffon')
}

OR

import com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.transformers.ServiceFileTransformer

shadowJar {
  transform(ServiceFileTransformer) {
    path = 'META-INF/griffon'
  }
}

Merging service files specified by include and exclude patterns

shadowJar {
  mergeServiceFiles {
    exclude 'META-INF/services/com.acme.*'
  }
}

OR

import com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.transformers.ServiceFileTransformer

shadowJar {
  transform(ServiceFileTransformer) {
    exclude 'META-INF/services/com.acme.*'
  }
}

Merging Groovy extension modules

shadowJar {
  mergeGroovyExtensionModules()
}

OR

import com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.transformers.GroovyExtensionModuleTransformer

shadowJar {
  transform(GroovyExtensionModuleTransformer)
}

Appending Files

shadowJar {
  append('NOTICE')
}

OR

import com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.transformers.AppendingTransformer

shadowJar {
  transform(AppendingTransformer) {
    resource = 'NOTICE'
  }
}

Filtering shadow jar contents by file pattern

shadowJar {
  exclude 'LICENSE'
}

Filtering shadow jar contents by maven/project dependency

Exclude specific dependency (transitive dependencies are not excluded).

shadowJar {
  dependencies {
    exclude(dependency('asm:asm:3.3.1'))
  }
}

Include specific dependency (transitive dependencies are not included). Note that dependency inclusion is based on the same core classes as Gradle's CopySpec inclusion/exclusion. By default, there is a global include, however, declaring a specific include effectively creates a global exclude. That is, once an include is made, only items that are specifically listed for inclusion will be include in the final output.

shadowJar {
  dependencies {
    include(dependency('asm:asm:3.3.1'))
  }
}

Include or exclude dependencies using regex pattern matching. The string is split on the : character in the form <group>:<name>:<version>. Each piece is compared as a regex to the values of the resolved dependencies.

shadowJar {
  dependencies {
    include(dependency('asm:asm:.*'))
  }
}

If a piece of the string is not specified, then that field is not used for the matching. Thus the following syntax results in the same filtering as the example above.

shadowJar {
  dependencies {
    include(dependency('asm:asm'))
  }
}

Exclude a project dependency in a multi-project build.

shadowJar {
  dependencies {
    exclude(project(":myclient"))
  }
}

Relocating dependencies

shadowJar {
  relocate 'org.objectweb.asm', 'myjarjarasm.asm'
}

Filtering files in relocation

shadowJar {
  relocate('org.objectweb.asm', 'myjarjarasm.asm') {
    exclude 'org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader'
  }
}

Transforming resources

Uses the Transformer interface.

shadowJar {
  transform(<Transformer class>) {
    //..configure the Transformer class instance
  }
}

Publishing the shadow jar as an additional resource to the main jar

apply plugin: 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'
apply plugin: 'maven-publish'

publishing {
  publications {
    shadow(MavenPublication) {
      from components.java
      artifact shadowJar
    }
  }
}

Publishing the shadow jar as a standalone artifact

apply plugin: 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'
apply plugin: 'maven-publish'

shadowJar {
  baseName = 'myproject-all'
  classifier = ''
}

publishing {
  publications {
    shadow(MavenPublication) {
      from components.shadow
      artifactId = 'myproject-all'
    }
  }
}

OR

apply plugin: 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow'
apply plugin: 'maven'

shadowJar {
  baseName = 'myproject-all'
  classifier = ''
}

uploadShadow {
  repositories {
    mavenDeployer {
      //configure maven deployment
    }
  }
}

NOTE: When using the 'maven' plugin, the 'compile' and 'runtime' configurations are removed from the POM and the 'shadow' configuration is mapped as 'runtime' scope. This is identical to the behavior with the 'maven-publish' plugin

Configuring additional POM dependencies for Shadow Jar

dependencies {
  compile 'asm:asm:3.3.1'
  compile 'org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15on:1.47'
  shadow 'org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15on:1.47'
}

shadowJar {
  dependencies {
    exclude(dependency('org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15on:1.47'))
  }
}

This examples allows the project to compile against the BouncyCastle encryption library, but then excludes it from the shadowed jar, but including it as a dependency on the 'shadow' configuration.

Additionally, any dependencies added to the shadow configuration will be added to the Class-Path attribute in the JAR Manifest for the output of shadowJar.

ChangeLog

ChangeLog