Add a dependency on a task before the task is defined in Gradle

Question

I want to create a task that dependsOn compileDebugJava . However, the Java plugin creates the compileDebugJava task after I declare my dependency and Gradle returns:

Task with path 'compileDebugJava' not found in project

So, is it possible to state my dependency for a task that will be created later?

Answer 1

Gradle has syntax for that:

task yourTask(dependsOn: 'compileDebugJava') {
    doLast {
        ...
    }
}

Note that the following equivalent syntax using the << operator has been deprecated:

task yourTask(dependsOn: 'compileDebugJava') << {
    ...
}