WIP / DRAFT gradle 9.x

[bric3]

What Does This Do

This is a workspace to try upgrading to Gradle 9.

Motivation

Keep tool up-to-date. Support later JDKs and libraries.

Gradle 9.3 Compatibility Report

Executive Summary

This report documents the compatibility issues encountered when upgrading dd-trace-java to Gradle 9.3.0. While several issues have been resolved, a fundamental blocker remains: Spring Boot 2.x Gradle plugin is incompatible with Gradle 9.

Related work:

• Update build scripts to Gradle 9.4.1 from 8.14.4 #11272

Issues Fixed

• Provider API Changes (TestJvmSpec.kt) 👉 Superseded by Remove nullable type in TestJvmSpec #11336

  Details

  Commit: 23f79d6821

  Problem: Gradle 9 changed the Provider API for handling nullable types. The old code used project.providers.provider<JavaLauncher?> { null } which is no longer compatible.

  Fix:

  // Before (Gradle 8)
  project.providers.provider<JavaLauncher?> { null }
  
  // After (Gradle 9)
  project.objects.property(JavaLauncher::class.java) // Empty property - no value set

  File: buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/datadog/gradle/plugin/testJvmConstraints/TestJvmSpec.kt:141

• Dependency Locking Configuration (dd-trace-java.dependency-locking.gradle.kts) not needed

  Details

  Commit: 23f79d6821

  Problem: Gradle 9's new JVM Test Suite plugin automatically creates test configurations when the java plugin is applied. The dependency locking configuration was being applied too early, causing conflicts.

  Fix: Wrap dependency locking in pluginManager.withPlugin("java"):

  pluginManager.withPlugin("java") {
    project.dependencyLocking {
      lockAllConfigurations()
      lockMode = LockMode.LENIENT
    }
  }

  File: buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/dd-trace-java.dependency-locking.gradle.kts:13-23

• SelfResolvingDependency API Removal (publish.gradle) 👉 Superseded by Replace SelfResolvingDependency by ExternalModuleDependency #11340

  Details

  Commit: 23f79d6821

  Problem: The SelfResolvingDependency class was removed from Gradle 9.

  Fix:

  // Before (Gradle 8)
  if ((it instanceof ProjectDependency) || !(it instanceof SelfResolvingDependency)) {
  
  // After (Gradle 9)
  if (it instanceof ProjectDependency || it instanceof ExternalModuleDependency) {

  File: gradle/publish.gradle:41

• sourceCompatibility/targetCompatibility Configuration (benchmark-integration/build.gradle) 👉 Superseded by Small Gradle Style tweaks #11306

  Details

  Commit: 23f79d6821

  Problem: Gradle 9 requires that sourceCompatibility and targetCompatibility be set within the java {} configuration block rather than at the project root level.

  Fix:

  // Before (Gradle 8)
  sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
  targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
  
  // After (Gradle 9)
  java {
    sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
  }

  File: dd-java-agent/benchmark-integration/build.gradle:28-31

• Protobuf Gradle Plugin Updates 👉 Superseded by Upgrade protobuf Gradle plugin to 0.10.0 across all modules #11310

  Details

  Commit: 23f79d6821

  Problem: Old protobuf plugin versions (0.8.18 and 0.9.4) are not compatible with Gradle 9.

  Fix: Update to version 0.9.6

  Files affected (8 modules):

  • dd-java-agent/agent-iast/build.gradle
  • dd-java-agent/instrumentation/grpc-1.5/build.gradle
  • dd-java-agent/instrumentation/armeria/armeria-grpc-0.84/build.gradle
  • dd-java-agent/instrumentation/protobuf-3.0/build.gradle
  • dd-smoke-tests/springboot-grpc/build.gradle
  • dd-smoke-tests/grpc-1.5/build.gradle
  • dd-smoke-tests/armeria-grpc/build.gradle
  • dd-smoke-tests/armeria-grpc/application/build.gradle

• Configuration Creation Order (log4j-1.2.4/build.gradle) 👉 Superseded by Small Gradle Style tweaks #11306

  Details

  Problem: Accessing testImplementation configuration before applying java.gradle caused the configuration to be created prematurely. When the Java plugin later tried to create its JVM Test Suite, it failed because testImplementation already existed.

  Error:

  Cannot add a configuration with name 'testImplementation' as a configuration with that name already exists.
  

  Fix: Move apply from: "$rootDir/gradle/java.gradle" before the configurations {} block.

  File: dd-java-agent/instrumentation/log4j/log4j-1.2.4/build.gradle

• Bnd Plugin Compatibility (osgi/build.gradle) 👉 Superseded by Bump aQute bnd plugin (osgi) to 7.2.3 #11341

  Details

  Problem: The bnd plugin version 6.4.0 uses the removed Convention API (Jar.getConvention()).

  Error:

  'org.gradle.api.plugins.Convention org.gradle.api.tasks.bundling.Jar.getConvention()'
  

  Fix: Upgrade bnd plugin from 6.4.0 to 7.2.3

  File: dd-smoke-tests/osgi/build.gradle:4

• Project.exec() Removal (version.gradle), 👉 superseded by Migrate version.gradle script plugin to Kotlin convention plugin #11345

  Details

  Problem: project.exec() method was removed in Gradle 9.

  Error:

  Could not find method exec() for arguments [...] on project
  

  Fix: Inject ExecOperations via @Inject and use execOperations.exec() instead:

  import javax.inject.Inject
  import org.gradle.process.ExecOperations
  
  abstract class WriteVersionNumberFile extends DefaultTask {
    @Inject
    abstract ExecOperations getExecOperations()
  
    // Use execOperations.exec { } instead of project.exec { }
  }

  File: gradle/version.gradle:11-12, 19

• Protobuf Generated Source Path Change 👉 Superseded by Upgrade protobuf Gradle plugin to 0.10.0 across all modules #11310, Remove redundant manual proto srcDir from protobuf-3.0 instrumentation #11343

  Details

  Problem: Protobuf Gradle plugin 0.9.x changed the generated source path from source (singular) to sources (plural).

  Error:

  unable to resolve class com.datadog.iast.protobuf.Test2
  

  Fix:

  // Before
  srcDirs += ["$buildDir/generated/source/proto/test/java"]
  
  // After
  srcDirs += [layout.buildDirectory.dir("generated/sources/proto/test/java")]

  Files:

  • dd-java-agent/agent-iast/build.gradle:121
  • dd-java-agent/instrumentation/protobuf-3.0/build.gradle:40

• Cross-Project Test Source Sharing via sourceSets 👉 Fixed in Migrate cross-project test source sharing to java-test-fixtures for Gradle 9.5 compatibility #11367, and Migrate debugger-integration-tests cross-project test source sharing to java-test-fixtures for Gradle 9.5 compatibility #11416

  Details

  Problem: Gradle 9.5 added a DependencyHandler.project(String) overload returning a ProjectDependency. In Groovy DSL dependencies {} closures, this shadows the previously-used Project.project(String) fallback, so expressions like project(':foo').sourceSets now fail because DefaultProjectDependency has no sourceSets property.

  Error:

  Could not get unknown property 'sourceSets' for project '...' of type DefaultProjectDependency
  

  Fix:

  • profiling-controller-jfr: migrated test resource sharing to the java-test-fixtures plugin; JFP resource paths are now provided by JfpTestResources, which extracts classpath resources to temp files (test-fixture JARs are not accessible via File directly).
  • Nine mongo driver/test consumers: removed redundant testImplementation project(':...:mongo-common').sourceSets.test.output declarations that duplicated an already-correct testFixtures(project(':...:mongo-common')) dependency.

• Spring Boot 2.x Incompatibility, done via Add smoke-test plugin for nested Gradle builds #11405 and follow ups: Remove unused Spring Boot plugin from kafkaschemaregistry #11406, Switch spring-boot-2.7-webflux to the smoke-test plugin #11407, Extract Spring Boot 2.x app source into nested-build subprojects #11408, Convert wildfly earBuild tasks to the smoke-test plugin #11417, Convert Spring Boot 3 / quarkus / armeria / vertx to smoke-test plugin #11421

  Details

  Problem: The Spring Boot Gradle plugin versions 2.x use the Configuration.getUploadTaskName() method which was removed in Gradle 9.

  Error:

  java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: 'java.lang.String org.gradle.api.artifacts.Configuration.getUploadTaskName()'
      at org.springframework.boot.gradle.plugin.SpringBootPlugin.registerPluginActions(SpringBootPlugin.java:122)
  

  Compatibility Matrix

  Spring Boot Version	Gradle 9 Support	Servlet API
  2.5.x	❌ No	javax.servlet
  2.6.x	❌ No	javax.servlet
  2.7.x	❌ No	javax.servlet
  3.0.x	❌ No	jakarta.servlet
  3.1.x	❌ No	jakarta.servlet
  3.2.x	❌ No	jakarta.servlet
  3.3.x	❌ No	jakarta.servlet
  3.4.x	❌ No	jakarta.servlet
  3.5.x+	✅ Yes	jakarta.servlet

  Affected Smoke Tests

  The following smoke tests use Spring Boot 2.x and are incompatible with Gradle 9:

  Module	Current Version	Notes
  dd-smoke-tests/apm-tracing-disabled	2.7.18	Uses javax.servlet
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-jpa	2.6.0	Uses javax.persistence
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-freemarker	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-java-11	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-java-17	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-jetty-jsp	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-thymeleaf	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-tomcat-jsp	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-tomcat	2.5.12
  dd-smoke-tests/springboot-velocity	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/kafka-2	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/openfeature	2.7.15
  dd-smoke-tests/spring-boot-2.7-webflux	2.7.4
  dd-smoke-tests/datastreams/kafkaschemaregistry	2.6.3

  Root Cause

  Spring Boot 3.0 migrated from Java EE (javax.*) to Jakarta EE (jakarta.*). This is a breaking change that requires source code modifications:

  // Spring Boot 2.x (Java EE)
  import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
  import javax.persistence.Entity;
  
  // Spring Boot 3.x (Jakarta EE)
  import jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
  import jakarta.persistence.Entity;

  Additionally, Spring Boot 3.x requires Java 17 or later, whereas several smoke tests target Java 8 or 11.

  Explored ways to do that in Isolate Spring Boot <3.5 apps in smoke-tests subprojects for Gradle 9 compatibility #11379 and Build smoke-test apps via Gradle Tooling API for Gradle 9 readiness #11404 before moving to smaller PRs

• :dd-smoke-tests:gradle inherits Groovy 4 which is incompatible with pock 2.4.0-groovy-3.0

  Details

  Problem: Spock's 2.4-groovy-3.0 artifact only works when Groovy 3.x is on the test classpath. Groovy 4 reaches a module via gradleTestKit(), gradleApi(), localGroovy(), used by this module.

  Fix: Bump to Groovy 4, or convert the test to java (but they are inheriting a parent)

---

References

• Gradle 9 Upgrade Guide
• Spring Boot Gradle 9 Support Issue #43573
• JVM Test Suite Plugin
• Jakarta EE Migration Guide

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