What are Gradle tasks and how do I use them?

What are Gradle tasks and how do I use them?

Gradle tasks are units of work that Gradle executes. You can define tasks in your build script to automate processes.

Can you give me an example of a simple Gradle task?

Sure! Here's a simple task that prints 'Hello, World!':

task hello {
    doLast {
        println 'Hello, World!'
    }
}

How do I run this task from the command line?

You can run the task by executing gradle hello in your terminal from the project directory.

What if I want to create a task that compiles Java code?

You can create a task like this:

task compileJava(type: JavaCompile) {
    source = 'src/main/java'
    destinationDir = file('build/classes')
}