Can I get some help on how to properly use the `distribution` plugin? I have a service which has a p...

# gradle

[Endre Deak]

Can I get some help on how to properly use the distribution plugin? I have a service which has a part which generates some kotlin code from a yaml file (using snakeyaml). But that’s only used manually by developers and isn’t required runtime. Yet, their dependencies defined compileOnly still appear in build/install/service/lib folder. I’ve tried to exlcude them by

application { 
   applicationdistribution.exclude("snakeyaml*.jar)
}

but that kept the jar in the lib folder.

I wonder what’s the right way to isolate these sub-distributions and include only the required dependencies.

[Vampire]

First you should not confuse the distribution plugin with the application plugin. The latter applies the former and creates and configures a distribution for it.

If the dependencies are compileOnly, they will not land in .../lib/ unless you intentionally did something to achieve that. I suspect you also have snakeyaml as transitive dependency.
You should use the dependencyInsight task or a build scan to find out where it comes from.