# Binary Plugin Publishing

version 9.6.0

Once your plugin is complete and tested, you may want to publish it so it can be reused across multiple builds or even shared with others.

There are a number of plugins available to publish your plugin. For now, we will use the core `maven-publish` plugin. The `maven-publish` plugin lets you publish artifacts (like JARs, libraries, or plugins) to a Maven repository.

## Apply the Maven Publish Plugin

In your `plugin/build.gradle(.kts)`, apply the `maven-publish` plugin:

    plugins {
      `java-gradle-plugin`
      `maven-publish`
    }

A lot of the information needed to publish the plugin - `group`, `version`, and `id` - is already in your build file:

plugin/build.gradle.kts

    group = "org.example"   (3)
    version = "1.0.0"
    gradlePlugin {  (3)
        plugins {
            create("filesizediff") {
                id = "org.example.filesizediff"
                implementationClass = "org.example.FileSizeDiffPlugin"
            }
        }
    }

plugin/build.gradle

    group = "org.example"   (3)
    version = "1.0.0"
    gradlePlugin {  (3)
        plugins {
            filesizediff {
                id = 'org.example.filesizediff'
                implementationClass = 'org.example.FileSizeDiffPlugin'
            }
        }
    }

`group = "org.example"` sets the group ID of the plugin.

`version = "1.0.0"` sets the version of the plugin artifact.

The `gradlePlugin {}` block is part of the `java-gradle-plugin` and declares a binary plugin. It registers the full plugin name `org.example.filesizediff`, backed by a class called `FileDiffPlugin`. This is the class that implements `Plugin<Project>` and defines what happens when the plugin is applied.

## Configure the Publishing Block

In your `plugin/build.gradle(.kts)` file, configure the plugin for publication by defining where to publish it. Inside the `publishing {}` block, you specify the repository to publish to:

build.gradle.kts

    publishing {
        repositories {
            maven {
                url = uri("${layout.projectDirectory}/publish")
            }
        }
    }

build.gradle

    publishing {
        repositories {
            maven {
                url = uri("${layout.projectDirectory}/publish")
            }
        }
    }

## Publish the Plugin

To publish, run:

    $ ./gradlew publish

This will generate and install the plugin JAR and associated metadata (like `pom.xml`) into the specified Maven repository.

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