Gradle plugin: removeFormat "java" is broken in 5.x

[jduan]

I have a Gradle multiple project setup and I'm trying to upgrade the spotless plugin (https://plugins.gradle.org/plugin/com.diffplug.gradle.spotless) from 3.24.2 to the latest version and I'm running into issues.

My setup looks like this:

• In the root build.gradle file, we apply the spotless plugin and configure "spotless" for each subproject like this:

    spotless {
      ratchetFrom 'origin/main'
      enforceCheck = false
      java {
        target 'src/**/*.java'
        googleJavaFormat('1.4')
      }
      kotlin {
        target 'src/**/*.kt'
        ktlint('0.32.0')
      }
    }

• Subprojects are owned by different teams and some of them want to configure spotless in their own projects' build.gradle file, eg:

spotless {
  removeFormat "java"
  java {
    target 'src/**/*.java'
    googleJavaFormat('1.7')
  }
}

This all works for version 3.24.2. However, it fails with the following error starting from version 3.25.0:

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating project ':projects:charisma'.
> Cannot add task 'spotlessJava' as a task with that name already exists.

This change looks suspicious: https://github.com/diffplug/spotless/blob/main/plugin-gradle/CHANGES.md#3250---2019-10-06 but I don't fully understand it.

Can someone take a look?

• summary of problem
• gradle or maven version: Gradle 6.2.1
• spotless version: trying to upgrade to 3.24.2 to 5.1.0
• operating system and version: macOS 10.15.6
• copy-paste your full Spotless configuration block(s), and a link to a public git repo that reproduces the problem if possible
• copy-paste the full content of any console errors emitted by gradlew spotless[Apply/Check] --stacktrace

If you're just submitting a feature request or question, no need for the above.

[nedtwigg]

Ah, yes. It looks like removeFormat is completely broken in our latest release. It's a bit tricky to restore it, but definitely possible.

spotless/plugin-gradle/src/main/java/com/diffplug/gradle/spotless/SpotlessExtension.java

Lines 219 to 223 in 43e4e97

	Constructor<T> constructor = clazz.getConstructor(SpotlessExtension.class);
	T formatExtension = constructor.newInstance(this);
	formats.put(name, formatExtension);
	createFormatTasks(name, formatExtension);
	return formatExtension;

As a workaround, rather than calling removeFormat, you could use clearSteps() to achieve the same thing, e.g. in a subproject:

spotless {
  // removeFormat "java" (don't do this)
  java {
    clearSteps() // do this instead, same effect except it doesn't wipe out the target
    target 'src/**/*.java'
    googleJavaFormat('1.7')
  }
}

[jduan]

Hi @nedtwigg thanks for the quick response. I'll give that a try and report back.

[jduan]

@nedtwigg I confirmed that your suggestion worked! Thanks again for your prompt response!

[nedtwigg]

Thanks for the clean bug report! Is definitely a bug, and we should either fix it or remove the method in 6.x. Not high priority, but I'm gonna leave this open until we get around to one or the other.