I have seen in many multiplatform projects, global variables are defined in a Kotlin file inside a m...

# multiplatform

[Daniele B]

I have seen in many multiplatform projects, global variables are defined in a Kotlin file inside a manually created buildSrc folder.
Is there any reason to use that instead of just define them in the global gradle file buildscript section?

[Joost Klitsie]

I think this is more of a gradle question, but if you use buildSrc you can actually write normal code, create functions etc. which you can call from your build.gradle. Also I can never find the ext.whatever declarations from my projects build.gradle by simply `ctrl`+`clicking` on it, something you can do with code from buildSrc.
If you have a multi module project, you can simply write:

dependencies {
    implementBaseDependencies()
}

and then implementBaseDependencies() would be a function in your buildSrc that implements all your base dependencies. (I mean this is just a stupid example but you get the gist). A copy paste from my project:

object Serialization {

        private const val Version = "1.1.0"

        private fun serialization(dependency: String) = group(GroupKotlinX, dependency, Version)

        private const val Core = "kotlinx-serialization-core"

        private const val Json = "kotlinx-serialization-json"

        fun DependencyHandlerScope.implementSerialization(flavor: String = "") {
            implementation(serialization(Core), flavor)
            implementation(serialization(Json), flavor)
        }
    }

In this case I can simply call implementSerialization() from my build.gradle and I have it, it wouldn't look as nice using buildScript

[Javier]

You should avoid buildSrc to declare dependencies because it breaks multiple cache systems like configuration cache.

Take a look to Gradle 7.0 Version Catalog feature.

[ephemient]

code in buildSrc! = code in buildscript

[Joost Klitsie]

@Javier can you point me to that version catalog feature?

[Joost Klitsie]

sounds interesting but googling Gradle version catalog points me to a lot of articles about gradle versions 😛

[Javier]

https://docs.gradle.org/nightly/userguide/platforms.html#sub:central-declaration-of-dependencies