if I want to just bundle

java/resources

into a jar, should I still use

java-library

plugin?

"just" opposed to ...?

having other things in the jar

java-library

will set things up so that dependent projects that can consume unpacked resources don't have to go through the

jar

, so there's still value even if there's no Java code

this jar has nothing other than java/resources

Do you really mean Java, as in the source files, or do you mean the compile class files? If you mean the former, there is probably no need for

java

or

java-library

plugin. If the latter then my question stands, opposed to what? The main purpose of those plugins is to compile sources to classes and pack the classes and resources into a jar. So what I don't understand is, why you should not use the plugin. That's why I ask the "opposed to". In which use-case would you use the plugin without any doubt?

I mean that the only thing in the subproject is in java/resources

Ah, so "java/resources" as in "src/main/resources", I see. Then what ephemient said. :-) the two things the

java-library

plugin adds are, that you can declare api dependencies and that it adds secondary variants so that projects in the same build can use the pure directories without the need to build a jar.