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I'm working on a Linux/Apache/MySQL/Grails application and have the choice of build tools. I'm looking at Gradle or Gant. They look very similar to me, so I'm not sure what differentiates them.

What are the major differences between Gradle and Gant that would make me pick one over the other?

jmq
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3 Answers3

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The main difference is that Gant is a build tool, while Gradle is a project management tool (from the dev/ops standpoint).
So Gradle, compared to Gant, comes "battery included", because it allows you to easily use plugins, manage dependencies, has a complete, hookable, lifecycle, etc...
It is a bit like comparing Ant and Maven, stricly looking on the Java side.

gizmo
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    gradle a "project management tool"??? I'd rather say it's a build system or build framework compared to gant being a build script language – raudi Feb 12 '14 at 15:20
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The major reasons you would likely pick Gradle over Gant:

  1. The functionality of Gant is a subset of Gradle. (basically a groovy wrapper around ANT)
  2. Gant is built with Gradle

Beyond that Gradle has a plugin architecture, is DSL based, integrates with Maven and Ivy and has true incremental builds. Gant was a valuable innovation in its time, the lessons of which are in Gradle.

kensipe
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Grails already comes with a build system included, so you don't need to do anything. At the moment it is based on Gant scripts, but a switch to Gradle is on the roadmap for Grails 2.0.

rlovtang
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    But on a general basis, I would choose Gradle over Gant anytime – rlovtang Mar 21 '11 at 19:50
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    It looks like they changed the roadmap as 'Update Build System To Use Gradle' is planned for Grails 3.0 and target date is 2013 :( – rozky Sep 23 '11 at 23:21
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    Yes, unfortunately. Grails 1.4 was actually renamed to 2.0, so I think the 2.0 version that Gradle was scheduled for, is now known as 2.5. But 'Update Build System To Use Gradle' has even been pushed further down the road to 3.0 :( – rlovtang Sep 27 '11 at 17:22