Setting Up a Build System for Kotlin with Gradle

22 Jul 2023 Balmiki Mandal 0

Setting Up a Build System for Kotlin with Gradle

Kotlin is a modern, statically-typed programming language developed by JetBrains. It is used to create applications for multiple platforms, including Android and the JVM. In order to make use of Kotlin, it is necessary to set up a build system. One of the most popular choices for building Kotlin projects is Gradle, the open-source build automation system.

Installing Gradle

The first step in setting up a build system for Kotlin is installing Gradle. For Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, there is an official Gradle installation guide that can be found here. Once installed, you need to set up the environment variables. On Mac OS X and Linux, settings are stored in a file called “.bash_profile” located in the user’s home directory. To set up a variable called GRADLE_HOME, add the following line:

export GRADLE_HOME=/path/to/gradle

Then, make sure to include the bin folder of the Gradle installation in the PATH variable by adding this line:

export PATH=$PATH:$GRADLE_HOME/bin

On Windows, the environment variables can be edited through the System Properties menu. The process is very similar to the above: you will need to create two variables, GRADLE_HOME and PATH, and set them to point to the Gradle install directory.

Creating the Project Structure

Once Gradle is installed, the next step is to create the project structure. This consists of several directories and files which tell Gradle how to compile the project. Create the following structure:

src
- main
  - kotlin
    - Main.kt

The Main.kt file in the kotlin folder is the source code of your project. Then, create a file called build.gradle in the project root, and add the following content to it:

apply plugin: 'kotlin' dependencies { // Use the latest version of the Kotlin compiler compile 'org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.3.61' } // Set the source and output directories sourceSets { main.kotlin.srcDirs = ['src/main/kotlin'] main.resources.srcDirs = ['src/main/resources'] main.output.classesDir = 'build/classes' }

This tells Gradle to use the Kotlin compiler with the specified version, as well as set the source directories and the output directory.

Running the Build

Now that the project is set up, you can try running the build. To do this, open a command prompt and navigate to the project root. Then, run the gradle build command. If everything is configured correctly, Gradle should compile the project and create the output files in the “build/classes” directory.

Congratulations! You now have a working build system for your Kotlin project. There are many more options available in Gradle, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Feel free to explore further and tweak the build system to suit your needs.

Setting Up a Build System for Kotlin with Gradle