Dependency Tree Diff

An intelligent diff tool for the output of Gradle's dependencies task which always shows the path to the root dependency.

 +--- com.squareup.sqldelight:android-driver:1.4.0
 |    +--- com.squareup.sqldelight:runtime-jvm:1.4.0
-|    |    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72
-|    |    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.3.72 (*)
+|    |    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0
+|    |    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.4.0 (*)
-|    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-common:1.3.72
+|    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-common:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0
-|    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 (*)
+|    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0 (*)
 \--- com.squareup.sqldelight:rxjava2-extensions:1.4.0
-     \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 (*)
+     \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0 (*)

Unlike a normal diff, unchanged entries are displayed only when they are a parent dependency to one that changed.

Compare the above diff to diff -U 0:

@@ -31,3 +31,3 @@
-|    |    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72
-|    |    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.3.72 (*)
-|    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-common:1.3.72
+|    |    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0
+|    |    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.4.0 (*)
+|    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-common:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0
@@ -35 +35 @@
-|    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 (*)
+|    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0 (*)
@@ -40 +40 @@
-|    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 (*)
+|    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0 (*)
@@ -51 +51 @@

Note how there is no context as to what is affected.

In this particular sample we can reach the root dependencies with diff -U 2:

@@ -29,14 +29,14 @@
 +--- com.squareup.sqldelight:android-driver:1.4.0
 |    +--- com.squareup.sqldelight:runtime-jvm:1.4.0
-|    |    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72
-|    |    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.3.72 (*)
-|    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-common:1.3.72
+|    |    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0
+|    |    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.4.0 (*)
+|    |    \--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-common:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0
 |    +--- androidx.sqlite:sqlite:2.1.0 (*)
-|    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 (*)
+|    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0 (*)
 |    \--- androidx.sqlite:sqlite-framework:2.1.0 (*)
 +--- com.squareup.sqldelight:rxjava2-extensions:1.4.0
 |    +--- com.squareup.sqldelight:runtime:1.4.0
 |    |    \--- com.squareup.sqldelight:runtime-jvm:1.4.0 (*)
-|    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 (*)
+|    +--- org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:1.3.72 -> 1.4.0 (*)
 |    \--- io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxjava:2.2.5 -> 2.2.19 (*)
 \--- com.squareup.inject:inflation-inject:0.5.1
@@ -49,4 +49,4 @@

Now, however, additional unchanged dependencies are displayed such as androidx.sqlite and the SQLDelight runtime dependency by the RxJava 2 extensions artifact.

For deep dependency chains, -U 2 will not be enough to see all of the roots. Increasing the value will only show more unchanged dependencies. dependency-tree-diff will always display the minimal subset needed to provide context.

For more information about why a diff of the dependency tree is useful see "Surfacing Hidden Change to Pull Requests". To learn about how code shrinking keeps the binary as small as possible see "Shrinking a Kotlin binary by 99.2%".

Usage

The tool parses the output of Gradle's dependencies task. Specify --configuration <name> when running the task so that only a single tree will be shown.

$ ./gradlew :app:dependencies --configuration releaseRuntimeClasspath > old.txt
$ # Update a dependency...
$ ./gradlew :app:dependencies --configuration releaseRuntimeClasspath > new.txt
$ ./dependency-tree-diff.jar old.txt new.txt

See src/test/fixtures/ for example outputs and their expected diffs.

Install

Mac OS

$ brew install JakeWharton/repo/dependency-tree-diff

Other

Download standalone JAR from latest release. On MacOS and Linux you can chmod +x and execute the .jar directly. On Windows use java -jar.

License

Copyright 2020 Jake Wharton

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.