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The intention of the toolchain is to match up with the desired target JVM version - if your goal is to target Java 8, use a Java 8 toolchain.

The thing is the toolchain is also used to run tests, right?

I need 11 to run my tests (because of Android) but still want to produce Java8 bytecode

yes.  you can specify a separate toolchain for that (it defaults to the same one as compiling).

Fwiw, I see no reason why you couldn't also use a JDK 11 toolchain for everything and pass `--release 8`  (through `options.release.set(8)` of the `JavaCompile` tasks)

Ah nice, that'd avoid downloading/installing one more toolchain. But might not allow Gradle to set the metadata correctly in `.module` files?

So I'd certainly need to override the 11 manually there (not sure...)

```compileJava.options.release.set(8)
```
should also set the metadata