Gradle vs Shake

Gradle Build Tool is a free, open-source system for automating software builds across projects of different types and sizes. Build logic can use either Kotlin DSL or Groovy DSL. Incremental builds, caching and parallel task execution support the build process, while Gradle downloads and manages transitive dependencies from Maven- and Ivy-compatible repositories. The Gradle Wrapper can provision a build environment and specify the Gradle version used by a project. Its ecosystem covers JVM, Android, C/C++, Swift, Objective-C and assembler projects, and it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The Tooling API lets IDEs and other tools inspect projects, run builds, receive progress events and cancel operations. Listed support includes Android Studio and Ant, plus Checkstyle, CodeNarc, PMD and JaCoCo. Gradle includes dependency verification. The maker says open-source security fixes are limited by its end-of-life policy; its Security Subscription offers prioritized fixes under SLA and extended maintenance, but does not guarantee a clean scanner report when findings come from third-party libraries.

Shake is an open-source Haskell library for writing build systems, positioned as an alternative to make, Ant, and SCons. Build rules can discover dependencies after earlier rules run, including dependencies revealed by generated files. Supported dependency inputs include files, file existence, environment variables, directory contents, and user-defined values. Shake provides parallel and multicore builds, resource constraints, build caching, and avoids rebuilding outputs when dependency changes do not alter results. Profiling reports can include plots, tables, graphs, and explanations of what built and why. It reports estimated completion time and percentage complete, with progress information usable in continuous-integration systems such as Team City. Shake can execute Ninja files for integration with CMake and Meson, and can build projects using mixed languages, including C/C++, Docker, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Build definitions are Haskell programs, although the manual targets readers without prior Haskell knowledge. Shake runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and is licensed under BSD. Installation uses Haskell Stack followed by `stack install shake`.