Distribution plugin

Javadoc:https://docs.gradle.org/current/javadoc/

The distribution plugin is currently incubating. Please be aware that the DSL and other configuration may change in later Gradle versions.

• Using the distribution plugin

apply plugin: 'distribution'

• to package the main distribution

It creates a single distribution in the distributions container extension named “main”. If your build only produces one distribution you only need to configure this distribution (or use the defaults).
You can run “gradle distZip” to package the main distribution as a ZIP, or "gradle distTar" to create a TAR file. To build both types of archives just run gradle "assembleDist". The files will be created at "$buildDir/distributions/$project.name-$project.version.«ext»".
You can run “gradle installDist” to assemble the uncompressed distribution into “$buildDir/install/main”.

  distributions {
    main {
        baseName = 'someName'
        contents {
            from { 'src/readme' }
        }
    }
}

using baseName property will cause the distribution archives to be created with a different name.

• tasks of distribution plugin

The Distribution plugin adds the following tasks to the project:

using ./gradlew tasks to see all the tasks.

• Adding extra distributions

distributions {
    custom {}
}

This will add following tasks to the project:
customDistZip
customDistTar
assembleCustomDist
installCustomDist

using ./gradlew installCustomDist to install the distribution contents into "$buildDir/install/custom"

• distribution contents

All of the files in the “src/$distribution.name/dist” directory will automatically be included in the distribution. You can add additional files by configuring the Distribution object that is part of the container.

distributions {
    main {
        baseName = 'someName'
        contents {
            from { 'src/readme' }
        }
    }
}

• publishing distributions

The distribution plugin adds the distribution archives as candidate for default publishing artifacts. With the maven plugin applied the distribution zip file will be published when running uploadArchives if no other default artifact is configured

apply plugin:'maven'

uploadArchives {
    repositories {
        mavenDeployer {
            repository(url: "file://some/repo")
        }
    }
}