Groovy is an agile and dynamic language for the Java Virtual Machine. It builds upon the strengths of Java, but has additional power features inspired by languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk.
Groovy makes modern programming features available to Java developers with almost-zero learning curve as well as supports Domain-Specific Languages and other compact syntax so your code becomes easy to read and maintain.
Groovy makes writing shell and build scripts easy with its powerful processing primitives, OO abilities and an Ant DSL.
It also increases developer productivity by reducing scaffolding code when developing web, GUI, database or console applications. Groovy simplifies testing by supporting unit testing and mocking out-of-the-box. Groovy also seamlessly integrates with all existing Java classes and libraries and compiles straight to Java bytecode so you can use it anywhere you can use Java.
To build you will need:
To build everything using Gradle (the command below will download Gradle automatically, you do not need to download it first).
./gradlew clean dist
This will generate a distribution similar to the zip you can download on the Groovy download page.
To build everything and launch unit tests, use
./gradlew test
If you want to launch one unit test, use this. <TestClassName> is like groovy.GroovyMethodsTest
.
./gradlew :test --tests <TestClassName>
To build from IntelliJ IDEA
./gradlew jarAll idea
Then open the generated project in IDEA.
To build from Eclipse
./gradlew jarAll eclipse
Then open the generated project and the generated subprojects in Eclipse. But be aware that Eclipse tends to be more limited in its ability to reproduce a gradle build structure. The generated project files may contain a circular dependency which may or may not prevent Eclipse from using them. It depends on the Eclipse version, if this is an issue or not.
To build the documentation (Groovy Language Documentation)
./gradlew assembleAsciidoc
All code samples of the documentation guide are pulled from actual test cases. To run a single documentation test case, take for example src/spec/test/semantics/PowerAssertTest.groovy
./gradlew testSinglePowerAssertTest
(note the omission of package name : class is semantics.PowerAssertTest
but only PowerAssertTest
is added to testSingle
).
The Groovy build supports the new Java 7 JVM instruction invokedynamic
. If you want to build Groovy with invokedynamic, you can use the project property indy
:
./gradlew -Pindy=true clean test
Please note that the following Gradle tasks generate both indy and non indy variants of the jars, so you don’t need to use the system property:
-
dist
-
install
-
uploadArchives
Groovy is licensed under the terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0