Android : How Do I Stop Gradle for Android From Building *All* Library Module Build Types On Every Build?

I'm sure that this has been asked before, but I'm just not finding the right keywords to ferret out answers, so...

How do I stop Gradle for Android (inside or outside of Android Studio) from building all build types of a library module when I request to build one build type? IOW, if I am building debug, how do I prevent Gradle for Android from also building release?

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The back-story, for those with alternative ideas:

Suppose that I have two Android Studio projects, A and B. Each has two modules: an Android library module and a demo app that depends upon that library. So, I have a total of four modules:

• A_L: project A's library


• A_D: project A's demo app


• B_L: project B's library


• B_D: project B's demo app

So long as A and B are not related, life is good.

But what if I want B_L to depend upon A_L?

For release, if I want those libraries to go in a Maven-style artifact repository, I need the release variant of B_L to depend upon the published artifact of A_L. That way, my B_L POM has the right dependency info.

For debug, it would be ideal if B_L could depend upon the working copy of A_L. While setting that up is a bit hacky, I can make it work.

But then if I add stuff to A_L, such as a new Java class, and I try using it from B_L, I can't build. My debug build is perfectly fine AFAICT. However, even though I really really really don't want to do a release build now, Gradle for Android insists upon doing a release build anyway:

$ gradle assembleDebug
:demo:preBuild UP-TO-DATE
:demo:preDebugBuild UP-TO-DATE
:demo:compileDebugNdk UP-TO-DATE
:demo:checkDebugManifest
:demo:preReleaseBuild UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:compileLint
:richedit:copyReleaseLint UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:mergeReleaseProguardFiles UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:preBuild UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:preReleaseBuild UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:checkReleaseManifest
:richedit:prepareReleaseDependencies
:richedit:compileReleaseAidl UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:compileReleaseRenderscript UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:generateReleaseBuildConfig UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:generateReleaseAssets UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:mergeReleaseAssets UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:generateReleaseResValues UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:generateReleaseResources UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:packageReleaseResources
:richedit:processReleaseManifest UP-TO-DATE
:richedit:processReleaseResources
:richedit:generateReleaseSources
:richedit:compileReleaseJava

(where richedit is B_L and demo is B_D in my nomenclature above)

I am asking to assemble the debug build, but it still compiles the release build. And the release build cannot compile, because I am trying to have B_L use new unreleased stuff from A_L.

I am reasonably confident, though not 100% certain, that if Gradle for Android would just blithely ignore release when I am trying to build debug, that I would be in OK shape.

Of course, there are possible workarounds:

• 
  

  I could abandon the idea that these are separate libraries and consolidate them into one. I may yet do that. But it sure feels like what I'm trying to do should be possible.

  
  


• 
  

  I could not try using the A_L changes until I publish a release A_L, in which case B_L can depend upon the published artifact for both debug and release. However, that seems like it will cause a lot of patchlevel churn in the A project, as my primary consumer "use case" of this new A functionality is B. Just because I have changes in A that pass instrumentation tests does not mean that they'll be what B needs, and I won't know that until I can build B with the changes in A.

  
  


• 
  

  A variation on the above workaround may be SNAPSHOT releases, where I would somehow enable checking for SNAPSHOT releases for debug but not for release or something. However, the mix of Maven, Gradle, Android, and SNAPSHOT all seems rather under-documented, and I have no idea if it's something that I should be pursuing. And, as with the preceding bullet, this still would result in release being built unnecessarily; the build would just succeed in my case.

  
  

Is there some Gradle for Android setting somewhere that I am missing that says debug means just debug?