Gradle: How to exclude a particular package from a jar?

Question

We have a package that is related to some requirements that were removed, but we don\'t want to necessarily delete the code because there\'s a possibility it will be needed

Answer 1

This solution is valid if you don´t want to compile these packages, but if you want to compile them and exclude from your JAR you could use

// tag::jar[]
jar {
    exclude('mi/package/excluded/**')   
    exclude('mi/package/excluded2/**')  
}
// end::jar[]

Answer 2

In 2018:

You may also use a closure or Spec to specify which files to include or exclude. The closure or Spec is passed a FileTreeElement, and must return a boolean value.

jar {
  exclude {
    FileSystems.getDefault()
      .getPathMatcher("glob:com/ourcompany/someotherpackage/polling/**")
      .matches(it.file.toPath())
  }
}

See Jar.exclude, FileTreeElement and Finding Files.

Answer 3

If you have some sources that you don't want to be compiled, you have to declare a filter for the sources, not for the class files that are put in the Jar. Something like:

sourceSets {
    main {
        java {
            include 'com/ourcompany/somepackage/activityadapter/**'
            include 'com/ourcompany/someotherpackage/**'
            exclude 'com/ourcompany/someotherpackage/polling/**'
        }
    }
}