Different dependencies for debug and release in gradle and Android Studio

I have an Android project, that depends on pure Java project. Both of them depend on another Java library, also in my multiproject gradle set in Android Studio. I have two versions of that library and want both Android and Java projects to depend on one of them in debug mode, and another - in release.

Is it possible for Android project? For pure Java project? How?

Build Types (debug, release, or custom) can have their own dependencies.

To specify a dependency specific to a build type, do the following:

dependencies {
    debugCompile "mydebugdependency"
    releaseCompile "myreleasedependency"
}

If your java project and android project are both using gradle, you can do the above in both of their build.gradle files.

My buildDebug dependency was also getting ignored. My setup is the app module and a library module, and I have the need to propagate the build type from the app to the library modules, i.e., when I compile the debug type on the app I want to get the library debug type too.

As mentioned, I tried having a specific dependency for each build type on the app gradle file, but to no avail:

buildTypes {
    debug {
        debuggable true
        applicationIdSuffix ".debug"
    
        dependencies {
            debugCompile project(":library")
        }
    }
}

Ultimately what did the trick for me was this: http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide#TOC-Library-Publication

So, now the library dependency is managed (as usual) in the global dependencies scope in the app gradle file:

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    releaseCompile project(path: ':library', configuration: 'release')
    debugCompile project(path: ':library', configuration: 'debug')
}

and had to add this to the library's gradle build file:

android {
    publishNonDefault true
}

This publishes all of the dependencies' build types. Note that if it takes a lot of time to compile your dependency, this solution might not be right for you.

You are able to do this using next pattern

build_variant_name dependency_configurations "dependency"
build_variant_name dependency_configurations project(path: ':libName', configuration: 'build_variant_name of libName')

For example

dependencies {

    FreeDebugImplementation "dependency"
    PaidReleaseApi project(path: ':libName', configuration: 'release')
}

You can read more about build variants - https://developer.android.com/studio/build/build-variants dependency configurations - https://developer.android.com/studio/build/gradle-plugin-3-0-0-migration#new_configurations