Gradle Release Plugin: How to keep version in a text file (not in a property file)?

Question

Gradle Release Plugin supports keeping version in a property file (see versionPropertyFile, versionProperties and versionPatterns configuration parameters).

I need to keep the version in a plain version.txt file that contains only version. Example of content: 1.2.3-SNAPSHOT

I set versionPropertyFile='version.txt' and got [/correct/path/to/version.txt] contains no 'version' property. Expression: properties.version.

Looked into sources and found that the plugin uses java.util.Properties#load() to read the file.

Do you have any ideas how to override this behaivior?

Full stacktrace:

org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskExecutionException: Execution failed for task ':abc-project:unSnapshotVersion'.
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:110)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:77)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.OutputDirectoryCreatingTaskExecuter.execute(OutputDirectoryCreatingTaskExecuter.java:51)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.execute(SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.java:59)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveTaskOutputCachingStateExecuter.execute(ResolveTaskOutputCachingStateExecuter.java:54)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ValidatingTaskExecuter.execute(ValidatingTaskExecuter.java:59)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.execute(SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.java:101)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.FinalizeInputFilePropertiesTaskExecuter.execute(FinalizeInputFilePropertiesTaskExecuter.java:44)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CleanupStaleOutputsExecuter.execute(CleanupStaleOutputsExecuter.java:91)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveTaskArtifactStateTaskExecuter.execute(ResolveTaskArtifactStateTaskExecuter.java:62)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.execute(SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.java:59)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.execute(SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.java:54)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.java:43)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.execute(CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.java:34)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter$1.run(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:51)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:300)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:292)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:174)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:90)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.run(DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.java:31)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter.execute(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:46)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.LocalTaskInfoExecutor.execute(LocalTaskInfoExecutor.java:42)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$BuildOperationAwareWorkItemExecutor.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:273)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$BuildOperationAwareWorkItemExecutor.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:258)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker$1.execute(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:135)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker$1.execute(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:130)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker.execute(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:200)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker.executeWithWork(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:191)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker.run(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:130)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:63)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ManagedExecutorImpl$1.run(ManagedExecutorImpl.java:46)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ThreadFactoryImpl$ManagedThreadRunnable.run(ThreadFactoryImpl.java:55)
Caused by: java.lang.AssertionError: [/correct/path/to/version.txt] contains no 'version' property. Expression: properties.version
        at net.researchgate.release.ReleasePlugin.checkPropertiesFile(ReleasePlugin.groovy:281)
        at net.researchgate.release.ReleasePlugin.unSnapshotVersion(ReleasePlugin.groovy:200)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.AbstractTask$ClosureTaskAction.execute(AbstractTask.java:722)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.AbstractTask$ClosureTaskAction.execute(AbstractTask.java:697)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter$1.run(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:131)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:300)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:292)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:174)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:90)
        at org.gradle.internal.operations.DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.run(DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.java:31)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeAction(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:120)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:99)
        ... 31 more

Answer 1

The plugin is not the problem I think. If you put the version the how should Gradle know the version? By default it's used for artifact namens for example. You could think about an separate task that writes the current version in that file and runs after the tasks of the release plugin tasks that are changing the version.