How to Install Gradle on Debian 10
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•6 min read

Gradle is a powerful and flexible build tool used primarily for Java projects, combining the best features of Ant and Maven . Unlike its predecessors, which use XML for scripting, Gradle uses Groovy , a dynamic, object-oriented programming language for the Java platform to define the project and build scripts.
This article describes how to install Gradle on Debian 10 Linux.
Prerequisites
The instructions assume that you are logged in as root or user with sudo privileges .
Installing OpenJDK
Gradle requires Java SE 8 or later to be installed on the server.
Execute the following command to install the OpenJDK package:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install default-jdk
Verify the Java installation by running:
java -version
The output should look something like this:
openjdk version "11.0.6" 2020-01-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.6+10-post-Debian-1deb10u1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.6+10-post-Debian-1deb10u1, mixed mode, sharing)
Downloading Gradle
At the time of writing this article, the latest version of Gradle is 6.3
. Before continuing with the next step, you should check the Gradle releases page
to see if a newer version is available.
Run the following wget
command to download the Gradle binary file:
wget https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.3-bin.zip -P /tmp
Once the download is completed, extract the zip file
in the /opt/gradle
directory:
sudo unzip -d /opt/gradle /tmp/gradle-*.zip
Verify that the Gradle files are extracted:
ls /opt/gradle/gradle-*
bin init.d lib LICENSE NOTICE README
Setting up the Environment Variables
Next, we’ll need to configure the PATH environment variable to include the Gradle bin directory. To do so, open your text editor and create a new file named gradle.sh
inside of the /etc/profile.d
directory.
sudo nano /etc/profile.d/gradle.sh
Paste the following configuration:
export GRADLE_HOME=/opt/gradle/gradle-6.3
export PATH=${GRADLE_HOME}/bin:${PATH}
Save and close the file. This script will be sourced at shell startup.
Make the script executable by running the following chmod
command:
sudo chmod +x /etc/profile.d/gradle.sh
Load the environment variables using the source
command:
source /etc/profile.d/gradle.sh
Verifying the Gradle Installation
To validate that Gradle is installed properly run the following command which will display the Gradle version:
gradle -v
You should see something like the following:
Welcome to Gradle 6.3!
Here are the highlights of this release:
- Java 14 support
- Improved error messages for unexpected failures
For more details see https://docs.gradle.org/6.3/release-notes.html
------------------------------------------------------------
Gradle 6.3
------------------------------------------------------------
Build time: 2020-03-24 19:52:07 UTC
Revision: bacd40b727b0130eeac8855ae3f9fd9a0b207c60
Kotlin: 1.3.70
Groovy: 2.5.10
Ant: Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.7 compiled on September 1 2019
JVM: 11.0.6 (Debian 11.0.6+10-post-Debian-1deb10u1)
OS: Linux 4.19.0-6-amd64 amd64
That’s it. You have successfully installed Gradle on your Debian 10, and you can start using it.
Conclusion
We’ve shown you how to install Gradle on Debian 10, Buster. You can now visit the official Gradle Documentation page and learn how to get started with Gradle.
If you hit a problem or have feedback, leave a comment below.