[gradle] Difference between using gradlew and gradle

What is the difference between using gradlew and gradle or are they the same?

gradlew is a wrapper(w - character) that uses gradle.

Under the hood gradlew performs three main things:

• Download and install the correct gradle version
• Parse the arguments
• Call a gradle task

Using Gradle Wrapper we can distribute/share a project to everybody to use the same version and Gradle's functionality(compile, build, install...) even if it has not been installed.

To create a wrapper run:

gradle wrapper

This command generate:

gradle-wrapper.properties will contain the information about the Gradle distribution

*./ Is used on Unix to specify the current directory