Gradle test task - Gradle 1.6 and with Gradle 2.3 or later

I have a Java project.

PS: In my project, I don't have any java program/source code in src/test/java.
- This folder just contains a blank.txt file.

I have two different Gradle versions:

1. Gradle 1.6 with Java 7 (as Java 8 is NOT compatible with Gradle 1.6 or any version < less than 1.10 version if I'm correct).

2. The other version is: Gradle 2.3 with Java 8.

Using both of the above mentioned Gradle 1.6 + Java7 OR Gradle 2.3 + Java 8 versions my project build successfully.

Though, I noticed one thing: That while running the build, it calls "test" task automatically (as per the Gradle design, test task runs for free); I found during Gradle 1.6 + Java7 run --- I see the following output.

:jar
:assemble
:compileTestJava UP-TO-DATE
:processTestResources
:testClasses
:test
:check

As you'll notice, it says I don't have any test source code (i.e. src/test/java doesn't contain any source code OR there's nothing new for Gradle to compile this time may be nothing changed since last time gradle ran the build) and that's why compileTestJava task is showing UP-TO-DATE in front of it.

But, :test task is showing that it ran successfully. I have used jacoco (code coverage) section within test { .. } task, then it actually ran that part (as there is no UP-TO-DATE in front of test task). Jacoco section is NOT defined in my project's build.gradle but actually it's coming from a top level / GRADLE_HOME/init.d/some-common-top-level.gradle file (where test { ... has jacoco { ... } .. } section in it).

As I mentioned above, test task didn't say UP-TO-DATE, therefore, after Gradle build process was complete, I can see it created the following folder/files structure inside build/tmp/expandedArchives/org.jacoco.... folder:

$ ls -ltr build/tmp/expandedArchives/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 e020001 Domain Users 0 Jul  7 20:45 org.jacoco.agent-0.7.2.201409121644.jar_778m6tp3jrtvcetasufl59dmau

$ ls -ltr build/tmp/expandedArchives/org.jacoco.agent-0.7.2.201409121644.jar_778m6tp3jrtvcetasufl59dmau/
total 272
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 e020001 Domain Users      0 Jul  7 20:58 META-INF
-rwxr-xr-x  1 e020001 Domain Users   2652 Jul  7 20:58 about.html
-rwxr-xr-x  1 e020001 Domain Users 272311 Jul  7 20:58 jacocoagent.jar
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 e020001 Domain Users      0 Jul  7 20:58 org

The same is NOT happening when I'm running Gradle 2.3 and Java8.

Build is successful but I'm not getting build/tmp/expandedArchives/org.jacoco.... folder containing jacocoagent.jar file.

Any idea, why Gradle 2.3 is not creating this jacoco specific .jar file.

With Gradle 2.3+Java8, the following output shows UP-TO-DATE in front of both :compileTestJava and :test tasks (which was not the case with Gradle 1.6 for test task).

I ran "gradle clean build".

:compileTestJava UP-TO-DATE
:compileTestGroovy UP-TO-DATE
:processTestResources
:testClasses
:test UP-TO-DATE
:check

I need Gradle 2.3 to generate this jacocoagent.jar under build/tmp/expandedArchives/org.jacoco..... folder so that I can use it in a downstream Jenkins job (which runs non-Unit tests) as this project does have some Integration tests and I'm fetching the jacocoagent.jar from the parent main build job (which runs gradle clean build including test task) in downstream job so that I can pass it to TOMCAT JVM while starting Tomcat (so that I can get jacocoIT.exec code coverage for IT tests). But, after I switched to Gradle 2.3, all projects where I don't have src/test/java ... now jacocoagent.jar is not getting created and the copy artifact plugin fails while trying to copy the .jar file from parent job.