To execute a task, we use the task name on the command line when we run gradle. So, if our build script contains a task with the first name, we can run the task with the following command:

$ gradle first

However, we can also define a default task or multiple default tasks that need to be executed, even if we don't explicitly set the task name. So, if we run the gradle command without arguments, the default task of our build script will be executed.

To set the default task or tasks, we use the defaultTasks method. We pass the names of the tasks that need to be executed to the method. In the following build script, we make the first and second tasks the default tasks:

defaultTasks 'first', 'second' 
 
task first { 
    doLast { 
        println "I am first" 
    } 
} 
 
task second { 
    doFirst { 
        println "I am second" 
    } 
} 

We can run our build script and get the following output:

$ gradle
:first
I am first
:second
I am second
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 0.558 secs