inlineTaskRecipe.gradle

// Create the task
// The declare the task and adds a body that will be executed everytime the tasks is executed
// Variables pushed in as configuration can be referenced here
// 
// This simple tasks will write a text file containing a list of files
// in a source set. It will also only update the output file, if at least one
// source file has changed.
task myTask << {
  outputs.file.singleFile.withWriter { out ->
     inputs.sourceFiles.each {
       out << "${it.name}"
     }
  }
}

// Configure the task. This allows for variables to be set within the
// tasks. It also allows for the task body to be included from a common gradle file,
// but configured on a per-project basis.
myTask {
  
  // I want to add some input files
  inputs.source fileTree ( "${projectDir}/src/datafiles" ) {
    include '*.xls'
  }
  
  // I also want to declare a single output file
  outputs.file "${buildDir}/example.txt"
}