Difference between test and check tasks in Gradle

Question

My build.gradle is as follows:

group 'groupName'
version 'version'

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'idea'

sourceCompatibility = 1.8

repositories {
    . . .
}

dependencies {
    . . .
    testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.12'
}

In Gradle when doing ./gradlew tasks I receive

Verification tasks
------------------
check - Runs all checks.
test - Runs the unit tests.

What is the difference between these two tasks? The output of ./gradlew check is identical to ./gradlew test.

andrewgazelka $ ./gradlew check

> Task :test FAILED

MathTest > testX FAILED
    java.lang.AssertionError at MathTest.java:40

MathTest > testY FAILED
    java.lang.AssertionError at MathTest.java:55

SimulatorTest > testZ FAILED
    java.lang.IllegalArgumentException at SimulatorTest.java:71

30 tests completed, 3 failed


FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':test'.
> There were failing tests. See the report at: file:///Users/andrewgazelka/IdeaProjects/RobotCode2018/build/reports/tests/test/index.html

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 2s
3 actionable tasks: 3 executed
andrewgazelka $ ./gradlew test

> Task :test FAILED

MathTest > testX FAILED
    java.lang.AssertionError at MathTest.java:40

MathTest > testY FAILED
    java.lang.AssertionError at MathTest.java:55

SimulatorTest > testZ FAILED
    java.lang.IllegalArgumentException at SimulatorTest.java:71

30 tests completed, 3 failed


FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':test'.
> There were failing tests. See the report at: file:///Users/andrewgazelka/IdeaProjects/RobotCode2018/build/reports/tests/test/index.html

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 1s
3 actionable tasks: 1 executed, 2 up-to-date

From what I understand, ./gradle test ⊆ ./gradle check. Is this correct?

Rehnberg

Answer 1

The Gradle check task depends on the test task, which means test is executed before check is run. The documentation states that check performs all verification tasks in the project, including test and also tasks that plugins add to the project:

If you, for example, add the checkstyle plugin to your project, you can either run its tasks checkstyleMain and checkstyleTest individually or execute a full project verification using check. In this case, the tasks test, checkstyleMain and checkstyleTest would be run.
Whereas test always just executes your unit tests.

Susurrus

One may add that test is a task that actually does something, while check is a so-called lifecycle task, that only bundles other tasks. The most common lifecycle task is build. – Particia