Gradle Use Latest Versions Plugin

A Gradle plugin that updates module and plugin versions in your *.gradle or *.gradle.kts files to the latest available versions.

This plugin depends on the Gradle Versions Plugin.

Maintainer: Patrik Erdes

Usage

Apply this plugin and the Gradle Versions Plugin.

Include in your build.gradle

plugins {
  id 'se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions' version '0.2.18'
  id 'com.github.ben-manes.versions' version '0.41.0'
}

or

buildscript {
    repositories {
        maven {
            url "https://plugins.gradle.org/m2/"
        }
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath "se.patrikerdes:gradle-use-latest-versions-plugin:0.2.18"
        classpath 'com.github.ben-manes:gradle-versions-plugin:0.41.0'
    }
}

apply plugin: 'com.github.ben-manes.versions'
apply plugin: 'se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions'

Usage for Gradle Kotlin DSL

Include in your build.gradle.kts

plugins {
  id("se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions") version "0.2.18"
  id("com.github.ben-manes.versions") version "0.41.0"
}

or

buildscript {
    repositories {
        maven {
            maven { url = uri("https://plugins.gradle.org/m2/") }
        }
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath("gradle.plugin.se.patrikerdes:gradle-use-latest-versions-plugin:0.2.18")
        classpath("com.github.ben-manes:gradle-versions-plugin:0.41.0")
    }
}

apply {
    plugin("com.github.ben-manes.versions")
    plugin("se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions")
}

Multi-project usage

In case you have a Multi-project build and you have some common dependency configuration in some common file in root project (like *.gradle file), you should apply plugin to all projects. Easiest way to do this is with allprojects block like:

plugins {
  id 'se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions' version '0.2.13'
  id 'com.github.ben-manes.versions' version '0.41.0'
}

allprojects {
    apply plugin: 'se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions'
    apply plugin: 'com.github.ben-manes.versions'
}

This is because se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions plugin scans files for every project separately.

In case you handle dependencies per project separately this is not needed and you can apply plugin just to selected projects.

Example

Given this build.gradle file:

plugins {
    id 'se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions' version '0.2.18'
    id 'com.github.ben-manes.versions' version '0.19.0'
}

apply plugin: 'java'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

ext.log4jversion = '1.2.16'
ext.codecVersion = '1.9'
def commonsLoggingVersion = "1.1.2"

dependencies {
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.0'
    compile "log4j:log4j:$log4jversion"
    compile "commons-codec:commons-codec:" + codecVersion
    compile group: 'commons-lang', name: 'commons-lang', version: '2.4'
    compile group: 'commons-logging', name: 'commons-logging', version: commonsLoggingVersion
}

If you run

gradle useLatestVersions

Your plugin and module dependencies in build.gradle will be updated – both inline version number and versions based on variables – and you build.gradle file will look like this:

plugins {
    id 'se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions' version '0.2.18'
    id 'com.github.ben-manes.versions' version '0.41.0' // <- Updated
}

apply plugin: 'java'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

ext.log4jversion = '1.2.17' // <- Updated
ext.codecVersion = '1.11' // <- Updated
def commonsLoggingVersion = "1.2" // <- Updated

dependencies {
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12' // <- Updated
    compile "log4j:log4j:$log4jversion" // <- The variable above was updated
    compile "commons-codec:commons-codec:" + codecVersion // <- The variable above was updated
    compile group: 'commons-lang', name: 'commons-lang', version: '2.6' // <- Updated
    compile group: 'commons-logging', name: 'commons-logging', version: commonsLoggingVersion // <- The variable above was updated
}

Tasks

useLatestVersions

gradle useLatestVersions

# Configuration and default values:
useLatestVersions {
   # A whitelist of dependencies to update, in the format of group:name
   # Equal to command line: --update-dependency=[values]
   updateWhitelist = []
   # A blacklist of dependencies to update, in the format of group:name
   # Equal to command line: --ignore-dependency=[values]
   updateBlacklist = []
   # When enabled, root project gradle.properties will also be populated with 
   # versions from subprojects in multi-project build
   # Equal to command line: --update-root-properties
   updateRootProperties = false
   # By default plugin tries to find all relevant gradle files (e.g. *.gradle, gradle.properties etc). 
   # This can be slow in some cases when project has a lot of gradle files. For example when using conventions 
   # in buildSrc. With this option you can specify what files should plugin search and check. Plugin will ignore
   # files that don't exist. Empty list means use default strategy. File paths are relative to project dir.
   #
   # Example:
   # versionFiles = ["gradle.build", "gradle.properties"]
   # Will check just $projectDir/gradle.build and $projectDir/gradle.properties
   #
   # Note:
   # You always have to specify file that has dependencies in some common dependency format with artifact coordinates,
   # e.g. compileOnly "group:module:version" or compileOnly("group:module:version") or val dependency = "group:module:version" etc. 
   # For example if you set just versionFiles = ["gradle.properties"] this won't work, since plugin 
   # won't be able to correlate variable with artifact coordinates.
   #
   # Equal to command line: --version-files=[values]
   versionFiles = []
   # List of root project files to update when updateRootProperties is enabled.
   # `build.gradle` is not an acceptable entry here as it breaks other expected
   # functionality. Version variables in `build.gradle` need to be moved into
   # a separate file which can be listed here.
   # Equal to command line: --root-version-files=[values]
   rootVersionFiles = ['gradle.properties']
}

Updates module and plugin versions in all *.gradle files in the project root folder or any subfolder to the latest available versions. This task depends on the dependencyUpdates task in the Gradle Versions Plugin to know which dependencies can be updated.

useLatestVersionsCheck

# gradle useLatestVersions && gradle useLatestVersionsCheck

This task will succeed if all available updates were successfully applied by useLatestVersions, and it will fail if any of the updates were not successfully applied. This task depends on the dependencyUpdates task in the Gradle Versions Plugin to know which dependencies were successfully updated.

useLatestVersionsCheck can not run in the same gradle run as useLatestVersions, since the dependencyUpdates task will check the *.gradle files as they were when the gradle build started, which means that it can not pick up the changes applied by useLatestVersions.

Updating only specific dependencies (whitelist)

If your Gradle version is 4.6 or higher, you can pass the --update-dependency flag to useLatestVersions and useLatestVersionsCheck with a value in the format $GROUP:$NAME. A complete dependency group can be updated by using the format $GROUP. Multiple dependencies can be updated by passing the flag multiple times.

# gradle useLatestVersions --update-dependency junit:junit --update-dependency com.google.guava && gradle useLatestVersionsCheck --update-dependency junit:junit --update-dependency com.google.guava

Ignore specific dependency updates (blacklist)

If your Gradle version is 4.6 or higher, you can pass the --ignore-dependency flag to useLatestVersions and useLatestVersionsCheck with a value in the format $GROUP:$NAME. A complete dependency group can be ignored by using the format $GROUP. Multiple dependencies can be ignored by passing the flag multiple times.

# gradle useLatestVersions --ignore-dependency junit:junit --ignore-dependency com.google.guava && gradle useLatestVersionsCheck --ignore-dependency junit:junit --ignore-dependency com.google.guava

Supported dependency formats

Dependencies stated in the following formats should cause the version to be successfully updated by the useLatestVersions task. (If not, please create an issue.) Single and double quotes are interchangeable in all formats below.

Plugin dependencies

Plugin dependencies can only be updated in Gradle 4.4+.

The plugins DSL only allows a strict format, e.g. only string literals for the version number, so there is basically only one format to support.

plugins {
    id 'se.patrikerdes.use-latest-versions' version '0.1.0'
}

Module dependencies

String format

dependencies {
    compile "log4j:log4j:1.2.15"
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.0'
}

Map format

Currently only if the order is group, name, version, without other elements in between.

dependencies {
    testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.0'
}

Module dependencies based on variables

def and ext. (extra properties extensions) can be used interchangeably in all example below.

String format

ext.junit_version = '4.0'

dependencies {
    testCompile "junit:junit:$junit_version"
}

def junit_version = '4.0'

dependencies {
    testCompile "junit:junit:${junit_version}"
}

ext.junit_version = '4.0'

dependencies {
    testCompile "junit:junit:" + junit_version
}

Map format

Currently only if the order is group, name, version, without other elements in between.

ext.junit_version = '4.0'

dependencies {
    testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: junit_version
}

Compatibility

Gradle version: 2.8 - 4.10.2 (Updating plugin dependencies only work in 4.4+)
Versions Plugin version: 0.12.0 - 0.41.0
JDK version: 7 - 11 (7 is targeted but not tested, 11 is currently not tested but is known to work)

Instructions for building this plugin from source

• Clone or download this project.
• Open the project, for example in IntelliJ open the build.gradle file.
• You can build the jar with the Gradle assemble task, it will be in build/libs/.
• If you want to use the plugin locally, first publish to your local Maven repository with the Gradle publishToMavenLocal task.
• To use it in a different project, add to your build.gradle file

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenLocal()
    }
    dependencies{
        classpath group: 'se.patrikerdes',
				name: 'gradle-use-latest-versions-plugin',
				version: '0.2.18'
    }
}

apply plugin: se.patrikerdes.UseLatestVersionsPlugin

FAQ

How do I exclude alpha/beta/rc versions?

The Versions plugin can be configured to achieve this, it is documented in the Versions plugin README

Where does the name "Use Latest Versions" come from?

From the Maven Versions Plugin goal called use-latest-versions

Changelog

0.2.18

Fixed issue #57, kotlin("plugin.spring") isn't updated (ghmulti)

0.2.17

PR #53, Recognise kotlin plugin format, e.g. 'kotlin("jvm") version "1.5.10"' (MxKaras)

PR #52, Fix "The variable ... is assigned more than once" message if variable has another as a suffix (xenomachina)

0.2.16

PR #49, Add option to specify version files (asodja)

0.2.15

PR #45, Adding list of root files with variables to update (tony-schellenberg)

0.2.14

PR #41, Add support to update root gradle.properties (asodja)

0.2.13

PR #35, Add flag to ignore specific dependency updates (blacklist) (Balthasar Biedermann)

PR #36, Allow setting of outputDir and reportfileName (dependencyUpdates) (Balthasar Biedermann)

0.2.12

PR #27, Add flag to update only explicitly listed dependencies. (Ian Kerins)

0.2.11

Fixed issue #25, Don't crash when dependencyUpdates/report.json has a version range

0.2.10

Fixed issue #24, Allow for non-standard buildDir setting

0.2.9

PR #23, Changes to address issues with Gradle multi-project builds. (b-behan)

Support com.github.ben-manes.versions version 0.21.0

0.2.8

PR #18, Support kt files within buildSrc. (Balthasar Biedermann)

Fixed issue #14, Kotlin dsl separate named and unnamed group name and version. (Balthasar Biedermann)

Fixed issue #15, changed the README to contain the correct way to use the plugin in a buildscript block.

Made the plugin work on Windows.

0.2.7

Fixed issue 10, Multiple versions in gradle.properties (Balthasar Biedermann)

PR #12, Support dependencySet of Spring Dependency management plugin. (Balthasar Biedermann)

PR #13, Support classifier and extension in dependencies. (Balthasar Biedermann)

0.2.6

Fixed issue 7, Update version variables in gradle.properties file, again. (0.2.4 didn't fix #7)

0.2.5

Fixed issue 8, Support for string interpolation with curly braces ${}

0.2.4

Fixed issue 7, Update version variables in gradle.properties file.

0.2.3

Fixed issue 3, Output formats are forced to be json,xml. (Tony Baines)

0.2.2

Fixed issue 2, Hardcoded Milestone Usage.

0.2.1

Added support for Gradle Kotlin DSL build files. (Thomas Schouten)