Java version

Note

Spotbugs tool requires java 11 and checkstyle requires java 17.

This is only actual for java projects (groovy projects use only CodeNarc).

Plugin will automatically disable tools on incompatible java versions. But spotbugs case is tricky (see below).

Important

It is completely normal to run quality tools on higher java version only (e.g. develop with jdk 17): no need to run it on each supported java on CI.

Java 11 support

Checkstyle 11 (configured by default) will be disabled on java 11 automatically.

If you only use java 11 then checkstyle could be enabled by downgrading its version:

quality.checkstyleVersion = '10.26.1'

(plugin enables checkstyle based on a configured version, so there is no need to manually specify quality.checkstyle=true)

Note

There is an issue with spotbugs plugin 6.x on windows java 11:

java.io.IOException: No files to analyze could be opened
    at edu.umd.cs.findbugs.FindBugs2.execute(FindBugs2.java:302)
    at edu.umd.cs.findbugs.FindBugs.runMain(FindBugs.java:390)
    at edu.umd.cs.findbugs.FindBugs2.main(FindBugs2.java:1223)

It is because of empty "onlyAnalyze" cli parameter (jdk arguments parsing bug). There is nothing you can do about it, except using spotbugs plugin 5.x (not affected by this problem). Problem reported, waiting for a fixed version.

Java 8 support

There is no way to enable checkstyle on java 8. But it would not be a problem: plugin will not try to enable checkstyle on java 8.

Spotbugs plugin 6.x is not compatible with java 8. In case when you use multiple jvm on CI: 8, 11, 17, there is no way to use spotbugs plugin 6.x only on java 11 and 17 (not possible to apply plugin conditionally in gradle).

Note

Spotbugs plugin 6.x is a problem for java 8 because its gradle metadata set java_version=11 attribute. If your project configured for java 8 source compatibility (sourceCompatibility= 1.8), then gradle will gradle would fail to start because there is compatible plugin version.

You can only downgrade spotbugs plugin to 5.x (compatible with java 8):

plugins {
    id 'com.github.spotbugs' version '5.2.5' apply false
}

In this case gradle would be able to resolve the build classpath on java 8, but the quality plugin would not enable spotbugs on java 8 (because recent spotbugs itself require java 11).

"apply false" is important because otherwise gradle would apply spotbugs plugin 6.x on java 8.

If it is required to use spotbugs plugin 6.x on java >= 11, then you'll have to apply it like this (the only way for conditional application):

buildscript {
    repositories { mavenCentral() }
    dependencies {
        if (JavaVersion.current() >= JavaVersion.VERSION_11) {
            classpath 'com.github.spotbugs.snom:spotbugs-gradle-plugin:6.2.6'
        }
    }
}

Alternative (not recommended)

You can cheat gradle to ignore java version checks for resolved plugin dependencies:

import org.gradle.api.attributes.java.TargetJvmVersion

buildscript {
    configurations.classpath.attributes.attribute(TargetJvmVersion.TARGET_JVM_VERSION_ATTRIBUTE, 11)
}

plugins {
    id 'java'
    id 'ru.vyarus.quality' version '6.0.0'
    id 'com.github.spotbugs' version '6.2.6' apply false
}

This way, gradle would apply spotbugs plugin 6.x on java 8, but the quality plugin will not activate it, and so everything would work fine.

Spotbugs 4.9.x (used by default) is not compatible with java 8.

If you run on multiple java versions, then do nothing: plugin would not enable spotbugs on java 8 (and spotbugs would be used on java 11 and above).

If you run only on java 8, then downgrade spotbugs to 4.8.x:

quality.spotbugsVersion = '4.8.6'

Auto tools downgrade

There is a special option to automatically downgrade tools to the lowest supported version:

quality.fallbackToCompatibleToolVersion = true

When enabled, it would change checkstyle to 10.x on java 11 and spotbugs to 4.8.x on java 8.

Note

This option is was added for plugin testing and not recommended because it may cause unexpected behavior (especially on CI): different tool versions may (and almost certainly would) produce different results.