You can compile and run Groovy source code by using the run command. The Spring Boot CLI is completely self-contained, so you do not need any external Groovy installation.

The following example shows a “hello world” web application written in Groovy:

hello.groovy. 

@RestController
class WebApplication {

	@RequestMapping("/")
	String home() {
		"Hello World!"
	}

}

To compile and run the application, type the following command:

$ spring run hello.groovy

To pass command-line arguments to the application, use -- to separate the commands from the “spring” command arguments, as shown in the following example:

$ spring run hello.groovy -- --server.port=9000

To set JVM command line arguments, you can use the JAVA_OPTS environment variable, as shown in the following example:

$ JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx1024m spring run hello.groovy

	Note
	When setting JAVA_OPTS on Microsoft Windows, make sure to quote the entire instruction, such as set "JAVA_OPTS=-Xms256m -Xmx2048m". Doing so ensures the values are properly passed to the process.

68.1.1 Deduced “grab” Dependencies

Standard Groovy includes a @Grab annotation, which lets you declare dependencies on third-party libraries. This useful technique lets Groovy download jars in the same way as Maven or Gradle would but without requiring you to use a build tool.

Spring Boot extends this technique further and tries to deduce which libraries to “grab” based on your code. For example, since the WebApplication code shown previously uses @RestController annotations, Spring Boot grabs "Tomcat" and "Spring MVC".

The following items are used as “grab hints”:

Items	Grabs
JdbcTemplate, NamedParameterJdbcTemplate, DataSource	JDBC Application.
@EnableJms	JMS Application.
@EnableCaching	Caching abstraction.
@Test	JUnit.
@EnableRabbit	RabbitMQ.
extends Specification	Spock test.
@EnableBatchProcessing	Spring Batch.
@MessageEndpoint @EnableIntegration	Spring Integration.
@Controller @RestController @EnableWebMvc	Spring MVC + Embedded Tomcat.
@EnableWebSecurity	Spring Security.
@EnableTransactionManagement	Spring Transaction Management.

	Tip
	See subclasses of CompilerAutoConfiguration in the Spring Boot CLI source code to understand exactly how customizations are applied.

68.1.2 Deduced “grab” Coordinates

Spring Boot extends Groovy’s standard @Grab support by letting you specify a dependency without a group or version (for example, @Grab('freemarker')). Doing so consults Spring Boot’s default dependency metadata to deduce the artifact’s group and version.

	Note
	The default metadata is tied to the version of the CLI that you use. It changes only when you move to a new version of the CLI, putting you in control of when the versions of your dependencies may change. A table showing the dependencies and their versions that are included in the default metadata can be found in the appendix.

68.1.3 Default Import Statements

To help reduce the size of your Groovy code, several import statements are automatically included. Notice how the preceding example refers to @Component, @RestController, and @RequestMapping without needing to use fully-qualified names or import statements.

	Tip
	Many Spring annotations work without using import statements. Try running your application to see what fails before adding imports.

@DependencyManagementBom("com.example.custom-bom:1.0.0")

@DependencyManagementBom(["com.example.custom-bom:1.0.0",
		"com.example.another-bom:1.0.0"])

@DependencyManagementBom('io.spring.platform:platform-bom:1.1.2.RELEASE')

You can use “shell globbing” with all commands that accept file input. Doing so lets you use multiple files from a single directory, as shown in the following example:

$ spring run *.groovy

You can use the jar command to package your application into a self-contained executable jar file, as shown in the following example:

$ spring jar my-app.jar *.groovy

The resulting jar contains the classes produced by compiling the application and all of the application’s dependencies so that it can then be run by using java -jar. The jar file also contains entries from the application’s classpath. You can add and remove explicit paths to the jar by using --include and --exclude. Both are comma-separated, and both accept prefixes, in the form of “+” and “-”, to signify that they should be removed from the defaults. The default includes are as follows:

public/**, resources/**, static/**, templates/**, META-INF/**, *

The default excludes are as follows:

.*, repository/**, build/**, target/**, **/*.jar, **/*.groovy

Type spring help jar on the command line for more information.

The init command lets you create a new project by using start.spring.io without leaving the shell, as shown in the following example:

$ spring init --dependencies=web,data-jpa my-project
Using service at https://start.spring.io
Project extracted to '/Users/developer/example/my-project'

The preceding example creates a my-project directory with a Maven-based project that uses spring-boot-starter-web and spring-boot-starter-data-jpa. You can list the capabilities of the service by using the --list flag, as shown in the following example:

$ spring init --list
=======================================
Capabilities of https://start.spring.io
=======================================

Available dependencies:
-----------------------
actuator - Actuator: Production ready features to help you monitor and manage your application
...
web - Web: Support for full-stack web development, including Tomcat and spring-webmvc
websocket - Websocket: Support for WebSocket development
ws - WS: Support for Spring Web Services

Available project types:
------------------------
gradle-build -  Gradle Config [format:build, build:gradle]
gradle-project -  Gradle Project [format:project, build:gradle]
maven-build -  Maven POM [format:build, build:maven]
maven-project -  Maven Project [format:project, build:maven] (default)

...

The init command supports many options. See the help output for more details. For instance, the following command creates a Gradle project that uses Java 8 and war packaging:

$ spring init --build=gradle --java-version=1.8 --dependencies=websocket --packaging=war sample-app.zip
Using service at https://start.spring.io
Content saved to 'sample-app.zip'

Spring Boot includes command-line completion scripts for the BASH and zsh shells. If you do not use either of these shells (perhaps you are a Windows user), you can use the shell command to launch an integrated shell, as shown in the following example:

$ spring shell
Spring Boot (v2.1.18.RELEASE)
Hit TAB to complete. Type \'help' and hit RETURN for help, and \'exit' to quit.

From inside the embedded shell, you can run other commands directly:

$ version
Spring CLI v2.1.18.RELEASE

The embedded shell supports ANSI color output as well as tab completion. If you need to run a native command, you can use the ! prefix. To exit the embedded shell, press ctrl-c.

You can add extensions to the CLI by using the install command. The command takes one or more sets of artifact coordinates in the format group:artifact:version, as shown in the following example:

$ spring install com.example:spring-boot-cli-extension:1.0.0.RELEASE

In addition to installing the artifacts identified by the coordinates you supply, all of the artifacts' dependencies are also installed.

To uninstall a dependency, use the uninstall command. As with the install command, it takes one or more sets of artifact coordinates in the format of group:artifact:version, as shown in the following example:

$ spring uninstall com.example:spring-boot-cli-extension:1.0.0.RELEASE

It uninstalls the artifacts identified by the coordinates you supply and their dependencies.

To uninstall all additional dependencies, you can use the --all option, as shown in the following example:

$ spring uninstall --all