Why does gradle not run in the Terminal Window in IntelliJ IDEA?

Question

When I open the Terminal window (View -> Tool Windows -> Terminal) in IntelliJ IDEA, and type gradle tasks, this is what I get to see:

C:\Sathyaish\MyJavaAndSpringBootProject>gradle tasks
'gradle' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

I presume from the fact that IntelliJ IDEA shows the Gradle tool window (View -> Tool Windows -> Gradle) and the fact that the IDE is able to run gradle tasks, and list gradle dependencies, that the IDE automatically also installed gradle on my machine.

I searched my machine for a gradle folder that also had a bin directory but couldn't find any. I know that I haven't installed gradle on my own.

I did find a gradle folder inside the IntelliJ IDEA installation folder here:

C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.1\plugins\gradle>dir /b
lib

C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.1\plugins\gradle>dir lib /b
commons-io-2.2.jar
commons-lang-2.6.jar
gradle-base-services-3.5.jar
gradle-base-services-groovy-3.5.jar
gradle-cli-3.5.jar
gradle-core-3.5.jar
gradle-jps-plugin.jar
gradle-logging-3.5.jar
gradle-messaging-3.5.jar
gradle-model-core-3.5.jar
gradle-model-groovy-3.5.jar
gradle-native-3.5.jar
gradle-process-services-3.5.jar
gradle-resources-3.5.jar
gradle-tooling-api-3.5.jar
gradle-tooling-extension-api.jar
gradle-tooling-extension-impl.jar
gradle-version-info-3.5.jar
gradle-wrapper-3.5.jar
gradle.jar
guava-jdk5-17.0.jar
jansi-1.14.jar
kryo-2.22.jar
minlog-1.2.jar
native-platform-0.14.jar
native-platform-freebsd-amd64-libcpp-0.14.jar
native-platform-freebsd-amd64-libstdcpp-0.14.jar
native-platform-freebsd-i386-libcpp-0.14.jar
native-platform-freebsd-i386-libstdcpp-0.14.jar
native-platform-linux-amd64-0.14.jar
native-platform-linux-amd64-ncurses5-0.14.jar
native-platform-linux-amd64-ncurses6-0.14.jar
native-platform-linux-i386-0.14.jar
native-platform-linux-i386-ncurses5-0.14.jar
native-platform-linux-i386-ncurses6-0.14.jar
native-platform-osx-amd64-0.14.jar
native-platform-osx-i386-0.14.jar
native-platform-windows-amd64-0.14.jar
native-platform-windows-i386-0.14.jar
objenesis-1.2.jar
reflectasm-1.07.jar
resources_en.jar

C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.1\plugins\gradle>

How may I run the command gradle tasks to list all gradle tasks from within the IntelliJ IDEA Terminal window? Should I add C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.1\plugins\gradle\lib to the PATH environment variable on my machine?

Solution 1

IntelliJ IDEA uses the Gradle Wrapper or the Gradle distributed location that you specify in your IntelliJ IDEA settings, but when you are using the terminal window, it uses your native operating system command line, so if you don't have Gradle configured in your PATH environment variable, it will just not work because it doesn't know what gradle is.

Add gradle to your path in:

Windows

In File Explorer right-click on the This PC (or Computer) icon, then click Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Environmental Variables.

Under System Variables select Path, then click Edit.
Add an entry for C:\Gradle\gradle-3.5\bin. Click OK to save.

Linux / Mac

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/gradle/gradle-3.5/bin

Solution 2

You should add the directory containing gradle.bat to PATH and restart IntelliJ IDEA.

The full path can look like this: d:\dev\gradle-3.5\bin.

Comments

[JB Nizet]

The good practice is to use the gradle wrapper. Look for that term in the documentation, and check if you have a gradlew file in your project.