How does Gradle find a setings.gradle file - gradle

Question

In a normal project, I can have a structure like this:
myProject/
build.gradle
gradle.properties
**settings.gradle**
but if I have another project
myProject2/
build.gradle
gradle.properties
it works fine.
Things go strange when myProject2 is a subfolder (but not sub-project) of myProject.
myProject/
myProject2/
build.gradle
gradle.properties
build.gradle
gradle.properties
settings.gradle
How does gradle find what settings file to use?

Answer 1

The settings.gradle file has the next 2 main purposes:
Add libraries to your build script classpath
Define which projects are taking part in the multi-project build
Therefore it is optional for a single-project build but due to #2 it is mandatory for multi-project builds.
By default it is assumed that the location of the settings file is also the location of the root project but you can redefine the location of the root project in the settings file.
Now, gradle logic for locating settings.gradle file as documented in gradle user guide here:
If you trigger a multiproject build from a directory with a settings
file, things are easy [Amnon - you just found it]...
If you execute Gradle from within a project with no settings.gradle file, Gradle looks for a settings.gradle file in the following way:
It looks in a directory called master which has the same nesting level
as the current dir.
If not found yet, it searches parent directories.
If not found yet, the build is executed as a single project build. If
a settings.gradle file is found, Gradle checks if the current project
is part of the multiproject hierarchy defined in the found
settings.gradle file.
If not, the build is executed as a single
project build. Otherwise a multiproject build is executed. Otherwise
(you executed Gradle from
(Gradle user guide also provides the purpose of this behavior here).
Now, back to your case, the first two project layouts you provided are for a single project build so settings.gradle is optional. For your third project layout if you'll run gradle from the root project (myProject) then it will find settings.gradle next to it but if you'll run it from myProject2 folder then since this project parent path contains a settings.gradle file, gradle will find it and use it.