What is Gradle Java library plugin?

Building, testing and running Java Modules With this release, Gradle supports the Java Module System with everything you need to compile and execute tests for Java modules. You can also build Javadoc and run applications.

The Java Library plugin expands the capabilities of the Java plugin by providing specific knowledge about Java libraries . … All the source sets, tasks and configurations exposed by the Java plugin are implicitly available when using this plugin.

A Java version between 8 and 17 is required to execute Gradle. Java 18 and later versions are not yet supported. Java 6 and 7 can still be used for compilation and forked test execution. Any supported version of Java can be used for compile or test.