Compilation and caches in the Kotlin Gradle plugin
On this page, you can learn about the following topics:
Incremental compilation
The Kotlin Gradle plugin supports incremental compilation. Incremental compilation tracks changes to source files between builds so that only the files affected by these changes are compiled.
Incremental compilation is supported for Kotlin/JVM and Kotlin/JS projects, and is enabled by default.
There are several ways to disable incremental compilation:
Set
kotlin.incremental=false
for Kotlin/JVM.Set
kotlin.incremental.js=false
for Kotlin/JS projects.Use
-Pkotlin.incremental=false
or-Pkotlin.incremental.js=false
as a command line parameter.The parameter should be added to each subsequent build.
Note: Any build with incremental compilation disabled invalidates incremental caches. The first build is never incremental.
A new approach to incremental compilation
The new approach to incremental compilation is available since Kotlin 1.7.0 for the JVM backend in the Gradle build system only. Starting from Kotlin 1.8.20, this is enabled by default. This approach supports changes made inside dependent non-Kotlin modules, includes an improved compilation avoidance, and is compatible with the Gradle build cache.
All of these enhancements decrease the number of non-incremental builds, making the overall compilation time faster. You will receive the most benefit if you use the build cache, or, frequently make changes in non-Kotlin Gradle modules.
To opt out from this new approach, set the following option in your gradle.properties
:
We would appreciate your feedback on this feature in YouTrack.
Learn how the new approach to incremental compilation is implemented under the hood in this blog post.
Precise backup of compilation tasks' outputs
Starting with Kotlin 1.8.20, you can enable precise backup, whereby only those classes that Kotlin recompiles in the incremental compilation are backed up. Both full and precise backups help to run builds incrementally again after compilation errors. A precise backup takes less build time compared to a full backup. A full backup may take noticeably more build time in large projects or if many tasks are creating backups, especially if a project is located on a slow HDD.
Enable this optimization by adding the kotlin.compiler.preciseCompilationResultsBackup
Gradle property to the gradle.properties
file:
Example of using precise backup at JetBrains
In the following charts, you can see examples of using precise backup compared to full backup:

The first and second charts show how using precise backup in a Kotlin project affects building the Kotlin Gradle plugin:
After making a small ABI change: adding a new public method to a module that lots of modules depend on.
After making a small non-ABI change: adding a private function to a module that no other modules depend on.
The third chart shows how precise backup in the Space project affects building a web frontend after a small non-ABI change: adding a private function to a Kotlin/JS module that lots of modules depend on.
These measurements were performed on a computer with an Apple M1 Max CPU; different computers will yield slightly different results. The factors affecting performance include but are not limited to:
How warm the Kotlin daemon and the Gradle daemon are.
How fast or slow the disk is.
The CPU model and how busy it is.
Which modules are affected by the changes and how big these modules are.
Whether the changes are ABI or non-ABI.
Evaluating optimizations with build reports
To estimate the impact of the optimization on your computer for your project and your scenarios, you can use Kotlin build reports. Enable reports in text file format by adding the following property to your gradle.properties
file:
kotlin.build.report.output=file
Here is an example of a relevant part of the report before enabling precise backup:
Task ':kotlin-gradle-plugin:compileCommonKotlin' finished in 0.59 s <...> Time metrics: Total Gradle task time: 0.59 s Task action before worker execution: 0.24 s Backup output: 0.22 s // Pay attention to this number <...>
And here is an example of a relevant part of the report after enabling precise backup:
Task ':kotlin-gradle-plugin:compileCommonKotlin' finished in 0.46 s <...> Time metrics: Total Gradle task time: 0.46 s Task action before worker execution: 0.07 s Backup output: 0.05 s // The time has reduced Run compilation in Gradle worker: 0.32 s Clear jar cache: 0.00 s Precise backup output: 0.00 s // Related to precise backup Cleaning up the backup stash: 0.00 s // Related to precise backup <...>
Gradle build cache support
The Kotlin plugin uses the Gradle build cache, which stores the build outputs for reuse in future builds.
To disable caching for all Kotlin tasks, set the system property kotlin.caching.enabled
to false
(run the build with the argument -Dkotlin.caching.enabled=false
).
Gradle configuration cache support
The Kotlin plugin uses the Gradle configuration cache, which speeds up the build process by reusing the results of the configuration phase.
See the Gradle documentation to learn how to enable the configuration cache. After you enable this feature, the Kotlin Gradle plugin automatically starts using it.
The Kotlin daemon and how to use it with Gradle
The Kotlin daemon:
Runs with the Gradle daemon to compile the project.
Runs separately from the Gradle daemon when you compile the project with an IntelliJ IDEA built-in build system.
The Kotlin daemon starts at the Gradle execution stage when one of the Kotlin compile tasks starts to compile sources. The Kotlin daemon stops either with the Gradle daemon or after two idle hours with no Kotlin compilation.
The Kotlin daemon uses the same JDK that the Gradle daemon does.
Setting Kotlin daemon's JVM arguments
Each of the following ways to set arguments overrides the ones that came before it:
Gradle daemon arguments inheritance
If nothing is specified, the Kotlin daemon inherits arguments from the Gradle daemon. For example, in the gradle.properties
file:
kotlin.daemon.jvm.options system property
If the Gradle daemon's JVM arguments have the kotlin.daemon.jvm.options
system property – use it in the gradle.properties
file:
When passing arguments, follow these rules:
Use the minus sign
-
only before the argumentsXmx
,XX:MaxMetaspaceSize
, andXX:ReservedCodeCacheSize
.Separate arguments with commas (
,
) without spaces. Arguments that come after a space will be used for the Gradle daemon, not for the Kotlin daemon.
kotlin.daemon.jvmargs property
You can add the kotlin.daemon.jvmargs
property in the gradle.properties
file:
kotlin extension
You can specify arguments in the kotlin
extension:
Specific task definition
You can specify arguments for a specific task:
Kotlin daemon's behavior with JVM arguments
When configuring the Kotlin daemon's JVM arguments, note that:
It is expected to have multiple instances of the Kotlin daemon running at the same time when different subprojects or tasks have different sets of JVM arguments.
A new Kotlin daemon instance starts only when Gradle runs a related compilation task and existing Kotlin daemons do not have the same set of JVM arguments. Imagine that your project has a lot of subprojects. Most of them require some heap memory for a Kotlin daemon, but one module requires a lot (though it is rarely compiled). In this case, you should provide a different set of JVM arguments for such a module, so a Kotlin daemon with a larger heap size would start only for developers who touch this specific module.
If the
Xmx
argument is not specified, the Kotlin daemon will inherit it from the Gradle daemon.
The new Kotlin compiler
The new Kotlin K2 compiler is in Alpha. It has basic support for Kotlin JVM, JS, and Native projects.
The new compiler aims to speed up the development of new language features, unify all of the platforms Kotlin supports, bring performance improvements, and provide an API for compiler extensions.
The K2 compiler will become the default starting with Kotlin 2.0. To try it in your projects now and check the performance, use the kotlin.experimental.tryK2=true
Gradle property or run the following command:
This Gradle property automatically sets the default language version to 2.0 and updates the build report with the number of Kotlin tasks compiled using the K2 compiler compared to the current compiler.
Learn more about the stabilization of the K2 compiler in our Kotlin blog
Defining Kotlin compiler execution strategy
Kotlin compiler execution strategy defines where the Kotlin compiler is executed and if incremental compilation is supported in each case.
There are three compiler execution strategies:
Strategy | Where Kotlin compiler is executed | Incremental compilation | Other characteristics and notes |
---|---|---|---|
Daemon | Inside its own daemon process | Yes | The default and fastest strategy. Can be shared between different Gradle daemons and multiple parallel compilations. |
In process | Inside the Gradle daemon process | No | May share the heap with the Gradle daemon. The "In process" execution strategy is slower than the "Daemon" execution strategy. Each worker creates a separate Kotlin compiler classloader for each compilation. |
Out of process | In a separate process for each compilation | No | The slowest execution strategy. Similar to the "In process", but additionally creates a separate Java process within a Gradle worker for each compilation. |
To define a Kotlin compiler execution strategy, you can use one of the following properties:
The
kotlin.compiler.execution.strategy
Gradle property.The
compilerExecutionStrategy
compile task property.
The task property compilerExecutionStrategy
takes priority over the Gradle property kotlin.compiler.execution.strategy
.
The available values for the kotlin.compiler.execution.strategy
property are:
daemon
(default)in-process
out-of-process
Use the Gradle property kotlin.compiler.execution.strategy
in gradle.properties
:
The available values for the compilerExecutionStrategy
task property are:
org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompilerExecutionStrategy.DAEMON
(default)org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompilerExecutionStrategy.IN_PROCESS
org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompilerExecutionStrategy.OUT_OF_PROCESS
Use the task property compilerExecutionStrategy
in your build scripts:
Kotlin compiler fallback strategy
The Kotlin compiler's fallback strategy is to run a compilation outside a Kotlin daemon if the daemon somehow fails. If the Gradle daemon is on, the compiler uses the "In process" strategy. If the Gradle daemon is off, the compiler uses the "Out of process" strategy.
When this fallback happens, you have the following warning lines in your Gradle's build output:
However, a silent fallback to another strategy can consume a lot of system resources or lead to non-deterministic builds. Read more about this in this YouTrack issue. To avoid this, there is a Gradle property kotlin.daemon.useFallbackStrategy
, whose default value is true
. When the value is false
, builds fail on problems with the daemon's startup or communication. Declare this property in gradle.properties
:
There is also a useDaemonFallbackStrategy
property in Kotlin compile tasks, which takes priority over the Gradle property if you use both.
If there is insufficient memory to run the compilation, you can see a message about it in the logs.
Build reports
Build reports contain the durations of different compilation phases and any reasons why compilation couldn't be incremental. Use build reports to investigate performance issues when the compilation time is too long or when it differs for the same project.
Kotlin build reports help you to investigate problems with build performance more efficiently than with Gradle build scans that have a single Gradle task as the unit of granularity.
There are two common cases that analyzing build reports for long-running compilations can help you resolve:
The build wasn't incremental. Analyze the reasons and fix underlying problems.
The build was incremental but took too much time. Try reorganizing source files — split big files, save separate classes in different files, refactor large classes, declare top-level functions in different files, and so on.
Build reports also show the Kotlin version used in the project. In addition, starting with Kotlin 1.9.0, you can see whether the current or the K2 compiler was used to compile the code in your Gradle build scans.
Learn how to read build reports and about how JetBrains uses build reports.
Enabling build reports
To enable build reports, declare where to save the build report output in gradle.properties
:
The following values and their combinations are available for the output:
Option | Description | |
---|---|---|
| Saves build reports in a human-readable format to a local file. By default, it's | |
| Saves build reports in a format of an object to a specified local file | |
| Saves build reports in the | |
| Posts build reports using HTTP(S). The POST method sends metrics in JSON format. You can see the current version of the sent data in the Kotlin repository. You can find samples of HTTP endpoints in this blog post |
Here's a list of available options for kotlin.build.report
:
Options, applicable only to HTTP:
Limit of custom values
To collect build scans' statistics, Kotlin build reports use Gradle's custom values. Both you and different Gradle plugins can write data to custom values. The number of custom values has a limit. See the current maximum custom value count in the Build scan plugin docs.
If you have a big project, a number of such custom values may be quite big. If this number exceeds the limit, you can see the following message in the logs:
To reduce the number of custom values the Kotlin plugin produces, you can use the following property in gradle.properties
:
Switching off collecting project and system properties
HTTP build statistic logs can contain some project and system properties. These properties can change builds' behavior, so it's useful to log them in build statistics. These properties can store sensitive data, for example, passwords or a project's full path.
You can disable collection of these statistics by adding the kotlin.build.report.http.verbose_environment
property to your gradle.properties
.
What's next?
Learn more about: