Provide a "create-project" command to create a skeleton project directory.

The Script below will create the src file structure for a new project based on the used plugins.
(Tested with gradle-1.0-milestone1)

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'groovy'
apply plugin: 'scala'

task initProjectStructure () << {
	project.sourceSets.all*.allSource.sourceTrees.srcDirs.flatten().each { dir ->
		dir.mkdirs()
	}
}

task initProject () << {
	if (hasProperty(initPlugins)) {
		initPlugins.split(',').each { plug -> project.apply { plugin(plug.trim()) } }
	}	

	project.sourceSets.all*.allSource.sourceTrees.srcDirs.flatten().each { dir ->
		dir.mkdirs()
	}
}

You could execute this with gradle.bat initProject -PinitPlugins=Java,Groovy,Scala

I tried improved version with 1.0-milestone-4. It fails with "Could not find property 'sourceSets' on root project 'fff'."

Have a look at the Templates plugin: https://launchpad.net/gradle-templates

I've been looking for this capability everywhere. Maven does this, why not Gradle?

@steve, there's no good reason, other than we haven't gotten around to it yet. Hopefully soon after Gradle 1.0 is released, we will tackle this problem.

I'm interested in this feature, which will really help newcomers get started quickly in creating new projects.

I've updated Leonard's script above to work with 1.2.

apply plugin: 'java'

task initProject () << {
	if (hasProperty(initPlugins)) {
		initPlugins.split(',').each { plug -> project.apply { plugin(plug.trim()) } }
	}	

	project.sourceSets*.allSource.srcDirTrees.flatten().dir.each { dir ->
		dir.mkdirs()
	}
}

I'm new to gradle, but none of the above examples work for me as written.

For just Java, you have to issue this cmd: gradle initProject -PinitPlugins=java (Note: lowercase 'j')

or change this line:
initPlugins.split(',').each { plug -> project.apply { plugin(plug.trim()) } }

to:
project.apply { plugin('java') }

and then just do:
gradle initProject

from the cmd line

+1 for getting this feature added quickly.

Gradle 1.6 and 1.7 add some support for setting up a new Gradle build using the `build-setup` plugin.

This initial support is very basic and we want to grow it in future releases, but I've marked this issue as 'fixed'. If you find problems or have suggestions for improvements to this build initialization support, please feel free to raise new issues via the forums.

You can find out more about our plans in this design spec: https://github.com/gradle/gradle/blob/master/design-docs/build-initialisation.md