What are the main actions that occur when building a project using Gradle?

When building a project using Gradle, the following main actions occur:

1. Project Initialization — Gradle reads configuration files (build.gradle or build.gradle.kts), which define tasks, dependencies, and settings.

2. Dependency Resolution — all necessary libraries and modules specified in the configuration are downloaded and linked.

3. Source Code Compilation — the project's source files are compiled into bytecode or executable artifacts.

4. Testing — automated tests are run to verify code correctness.

5. Packaging — the compiled files and resources are assembled into a final artifact (e.g., JAR, WAR).

6. Deployment or Publishing (optional) — the artifact can be uploaded to a repository or deployed on a server.

Gradle manages dependencies and tasks through a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph), which allows for efficient execution of only the necessary steps when changes occur.