The developmentOnly configuration only works for devtools

[hemeroc]

Setup:

• ceate a new project
  • gradle, kotlin, 2.2.x
  • devTools and actuator dependencies
• set the actuator dependency from implementation to developmentOnly
• run ./gradlew clean build

Expected behaviour:

• devtools is not packaged within the jar
• actuator is not packaged within the jar

Current behaviour:

• devtools is not packaged within the jar
• actuator is packaged within the jar

$ jar tf build/libs/demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar | grep -E "actuator|devtools"
BOOT-INF/lib/spring-boot-starter-actuator-2.2.0.RELEASE.jar
BOOT-INF/lib/spring-boot-actuator-autoconfigure-2.2.0.RELEASE.jar
BOOT-INF/lib/spring-boot-actuator-2.2.0.RELEASE.jar

---

Either I'm doing something completely wrong or there is a bug in the jar packaging or the behaviour is intended but then the name is misleading.

[wilkinsona]

It's development only in that it's on the classpath while you're developing and running your application, but it not on the classpath while you're testing your classpath. It's the bootJar task, via its excludeDevtools property (which defaults to true) that prevents the DevTools jar from being packaged in BOOT-INF/lib.

The name developmentOnly isn't perfect, but we've been unable to think of a better, reasonably concise name. If you'd like to suggest something we'd be more than happy to consider it.

[hemeroc]

Ok, now that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for clarification.
In my project I now excluded all developmentOnly dependencies with following code snippet:

tasks.withType<BootJar> {
    exclude { developmentOnly.resolvedConfiguration.files.contains(it.file) }
}

[wilkinsona]

Thanks for following up. You may be interested in this Spring Boot issue. Once implemented, it should take care of all of this for you.