Gradle – add directory to classpath

My application requires that a config directory be available on the classpath when it looks for configurations files under the directory. I currently have dependencies configured like so, though this is probably not the correct way to make a directory available to my application:

dependencies {
    ... //runtime, compile dependencies pulled from repositories
    runtime files('config')
}

I am using the application plugin to create a standalone zip for my project. If my config directory has configsubdir, file1, file2, then the plugin produces a buildinstall directory with the following structure:

| build
| --|install
| ----|bin
| ------ projectName
| ------ projectName.bat
| ----|lib
| ------ dependency1.jar
| ------ dependency2.jar
| ------|subdir
| ------ file1
| ------ file2

This does not work for my application because it explicitly expects a config directory

However, this is the directory structure that I need:

| build
| --|install
| ----|bin
| ------ projectName
| ------ projectName.bat
| ----|lib
| ------ dependency1.jar
| ------ dependency2.jar
| ----|config
| ------|subdir
| ------ file1
| ------ file2

How can I make gradle add another directory to the build and specify it as part of the classpath for the generated startup scripts?

Answer

The application plugin documentation says:

Static files to be added to the distribution can be simply added to src/dist

I would try putting your config directory into src/dist/lib and continue adding it to your classpath with runtime files('src/dist/lib/config')

Note: working around this defect means that config has to go into /lib under src/dist