Build Tools

Run mvn dependency:tree. It prints every dependency your project pulls in, including transitive ones, as an indented tree showing which dependency brought in which, plus the scope and version of each.

Maven has six scopes: compile (default, everywhere), provided (compile/test only, supplied at runtime by the container), runtime (not for compiling, needed to run), test (only for tests), system (like provided but you give a local jar path), and import (only for BOMs in dependencyManagement).

Transitive dependencies are the dependencies of your dependencies. If you declare library A and A needs B, Maven automatically downloads B too, so you don't have to list it yourself.

<dependencyManagement> declares versions (and other settings) centrally but does NOT add the dependency to the build. Child modules that list the same dependency without a version inherit the managed version. Plain <dependencies> actually pulls the jar onto the classpath.

An archetype is a project template. You run mvn archetype:generate, pick a template, and answer prompts for groupId, artifactId and version; Maven creates a ready-to-build project skeleton from that template.

The Worker API lets a task hand units of work to Gradle's worker pool so they run in parallel. You inject WorkerExecutor, define a WorkAction, and submit work to a queue. It enables parallelism and isolation that a plain task action can't get.

convention(...) supplies a default value used only if nobody calls set(...). set(...) is an explicit assignment that overrides any convention. So convention = fallback default, set = the actual chosen value.

An extension is an object added to a project that exposes a configuration block (DSL). A plugin registers it with project.extensions.create("myExt", MyExtension::class.java), then users configure it via a myExt { ... } block.

It's a Gradle collection of objects each identified by a unique name. Plugins expose one so users can declare multiple named instances in a DSL block, like sourceSets or configurations.

Use task.greeting.set(extension.greeting). This wires the task's Property to the extension's Property lazily, so the value is read later (at execution), not while configuring.