gradle: init-deps.gradle should be dropped on favor of ${gradleBuildTask} --dry-run

[britter]

The init-deps.gradle script - while being a clever way for resolving all dependencies - has some limitations:

• it downloads way too much for modularized projects if only a subtree is build. It also downloads all build plugins even the ones not required for building the output artifact
• It's not configuration cache compatible. If a build configured org.gradle.configuration-cache=true in Gradle properties it will result in an error saying:

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':backend:nixDownloadDeps'.
> Could not get unknown property 'configurations' for task ':backend:nixDownloadDeps' of type org.gradle.api.DefaultTask.

• There's no way of injecting additional command line parameters, such as --no-configuration-cache
• It's not compatible with isolated projects which will force even more restrictions than configuration cache.

Instead of registering dedicated tasks that force a dependency download for all subprojects and all build scripts, the dependency download should better call the gradleBuildTask with --dry-run. This will evaluate the task graph required for running gradleBuildTask and resolve all required dependencies.

/cc @liff @lorenzleutgeb @chayleaf @FliegendeWurst @Infinidoge @tomodachi94

[chayleaf]

That sounds fair, as long as no projects in-tree rely on it for cross platform support. Additionally, it should run the gradleCheckTask since that may have its own dependencies.

[Infinidoge]

So long as it works, absolutely. The less of our own tooling we need the better.