I'm not aware of a limit, and if there is one, it's somewhere in the GB range. There appears to be some other problem with your archive.

I am seeing the same issue with Gradle 2.2.1.

println tarTree(configurations.jdk.singleFile).files

Results in:

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

• Where:
  Build file '/path/to/project/build.gradle' line: 40

• What went wrong:
  A problem occurred evaluating root project 'project'.
  > Unable to expand TAR '/path/to/jdk/archive/jdk-8u40-linux-x64.tar.gz'
  The tar might be corrupted or it is compressed in an unexpected way.
  By default the tar tree tries to guess the compression based on the file extension.
  If you need to specify the compression explicitly please refer to the DSL reference.

• Try:
  Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.

BUILD FAILED

Total time: 3.081 secs

This is an unaltered copy of the Oracle JDK tarball. I have verified that it is usable from the command line. Something Gradle-related doesn't like it. I could see it being the size (166M) as I've not run into this particular error before with tarballs.

In case it comes up, I get the exact same error inside a copy task

Could you please run with `--stacktrace` and provide the stack. Hopefully it contains information on the real error.

Exception is:
org.gradle.api.GradleScriptException: A problem occurred evaluating root project 'project'.
at org.gradle.groovy.scripts.internal.DefaultScriptRunnerFactory$ScriptRunnerImpl.run(DefaultScriptRunnerFactory.java:54)
at org.gradle.configuration.DefaultScriptPluginFactory$ScriptPluginImpl.apply(DefaultScriptPluginFactory.java:148)
at org.gradle.configuration.project.BuildScriptProcessor.execute(BuildScriptProcessor.java:39)
at org.gradle.configuration.project.BuildScriptProcessor.execute(BuildScriptProcessor.java:26)
at org.gradle.configuration.project.ConfigureActionsProjectEvaluator.evaluate(ConfigureActionsProjectEvaluator.java:34)
at org.gradle.configuration.project.LifecycleProjectEvaluator.evaluate(LifecycleProjectEvaluator.java:59)
at org.gradle.api.internal.project.AbstractProject.evaluate(AbstractProject.java:504)
at org.gradle.api.internal.project.AbstractProject.evaluate(AbstractProject.java:83)
at org.gradle.execution.TaskPathProjectEvaluator.configureHierarchy(TaskPathProjectEvaluator.java:42)
at org.gradle.configuration.DefaultBuildConfigurer.configure(DefaultBuildConfigurer.java:35)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuildStages(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:129)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuild(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:106)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.run(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:86)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter$DefaultBuildController.run(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:80)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExecuteBuildAction.run(ExecuteBuildAction.java:33)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExecuteBuildAction.run(ExecuteBuildAction.java:24)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:36)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:26)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.RunBuildAction.run(RunBuildAction.java:51)
at org.gradle.internal.Actions$RunnableActionAdapter.execute(Actions.java:171)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$ParseAndBuildAction.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:237)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$ParseAndBuildAction.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:210)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.JavaRuntimeValidationAction.execute(JavaRuntimeValidationAction.java:35)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.JavaRuntimeValidationAction.execute(JavaRuntimeValidationAction.java:24)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$WithLogging.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:206)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$WithLogging.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:169)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExceptionReportingAction.execute(ExceptionReportingAction.java:33)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExceptionReportingAction.execute(ExceptionReportingAction.java:22)
at org.gradle.launcher.Main.doAction(Main.java:33)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.EntryPoint.run(EntryPoint.java:45)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.ProcessBootstrap.runNoExit(ProcessBootstrap.java:54)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.ProcessBootstrap.run(ProcessBootstrap.java:35)
at org.gradle.launcher.GradleMain.main(GradleMain.java:23)
Caused by: org.gradle.api.GradleException: Unable to expand TAR '/path/to/jdk/archive/jdk-8u40-linux-x64.tar.gz'
The tar might be corrupted or it is compressed in an unexpected way.
By default the tar tree tries to guess the compression based on the file extension.
If you need to specify the compression explicitly please refer to the DSL reference.
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.archive.TarFileTree.visit(TarFileTree.java:79)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.FileTreeAdapter.visit(FileTreeAdapter.java:96)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.AbstractFileTree.getFiles(AbstractFileTree.java:37)
at build_465ftqg9bnx9fjui5v1nrftif.run(/path/to/project/build.gradle:40)
at org.gradle.groovy.scripts.internal.DefaultScriptRunnerFactory$ScriptRunnerImpl.run(DefaultScriptRunnerFactory.java:52)
... 32 more
Caused by: org.gradle.api.GradleException: Could not copy tar entry /path/to/jdk/archive/jdk-8u40-linux-x64.tar.gz!jdk1.8.0_40/README.html to '/path/to/project/build/tmp/expandedArchives/jdk-8u40-linux-x64.tar.gz_7rgta7iqynbzorxi3d85umfvr/jdk1.8.0_40/README.html'.
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.AbstractFileTreeElement.copyTo(AbstractFileTreeElement.java:79)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.archive.TarFileTree$DetailsImpl.getFile(TarFileTree.java:121)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.AbstractFileTree$1.visitFile(AbstractFileTree.java:39)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.archive.TarFileTree.visitImpl(TarFileTree.java:91)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.archive.TarFileTree.visit(TarFileTree.java:70)
... 36 more
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /path/to/project/build/tmp/expandedArchives/jdk-8u40-linux-x64.tar.gz_7rgta7iqynbzorxi3d85umfvr/jdk1.8.0_40/README.html (Permission denied)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.AbstractFileTreeElement.copyFile(AbstractFileTreeElement.java:91)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.AbstractFileTreeElement.copyTo(AbstractFileTreeElement.java:74)
... 40 more

$ ls -l build/tmp/expandedArchives/jdk-8u40-linux-x64.tar.gz_7rgta7iqynbzorxi3d85umfvr/jdk1.8.0_40/README.html
rrr- 1 myuser myuser 159 Mar 20 16:05 build/tmp/expandedArchives/jdk-8u40-linux-x64.tar.gz_7rgta7iqynbzorxi3d85umfvr/jdk1.8.0_40/README.html

I notice that the file has a mode of 444. Could it just be that under the covers Gradle/Groovy/Java is trying to write to an existing read-only file without deleting it first? Not sure why it would be trying to untar it twice. For additional context, here is the relevant block of the build script up until the failing line:

configurations

dependencies.jdk "com.oracle.java.jdk:jdk:${version}:[1]linux-x64@tar.gz"
dependencies.jce "com.oracle.java.jce:unlimited-jce-policy:${version[0]}@zip"

try

catch (org.gradle.api.artifacts.ResolveException e) {
println "We cannot build ${project.name} with version '${version}'. Try something like '8u40'"
System.exit(1)
}

println tarTree(configurations.jdk.singleFile).files
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] linux-x64@tar.gz

Does this happen on a clean build?

Actually, yes. My thought is that something about that block of code expands the tarball twice. Perhaps tarTree does it once, and then files tries it again?

Upon closer inspection, this does not happen on a clean build. My confusion arose out of the fact that the build couldn't clean itself because the error was happening during the configuration phase. When I manually removed the build directory, I found that the error goes away for that first build from a "clean" state.

That said, I would still consider this a pretty big issue as it makes build scripts that hit it very brittle. Here is a very simple script to reproduce it:

repositories { flatDir { dirs projectDir }}
configurations { jdk }
dependencies.jdk "com.oracle.java.jdk:jdk:8u40:linux-x64@tar.gz"
configurations.jdk.resolve()
def secondTimeDeath = tarTree(configurations.jdk.singleFile).files

1. Download the 8u40 version of Oracle's jdk to the directory containing build.gradle
2. Execute gradle

   $ gradle
   :help
   
   Welcome to Gradle 2.3.
   
   To run a build, run gradle <task> ...
   
   To see a list of available tasks, run gradle tasks
   
   To see a list of command-line options, run gradle --help
   
   To see more detail about a task, run gradle help --task <task>
   
   BUILD SUCCESSFUL
   
   Total time: 4.006 secs
   

3. Execute gradle again

   $ gradle
   
   FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
   
   * Where:
   Build file '/tmp/gradle-test-build/build.gradle' line: 5
   
   * What went wrong:
   A problem occurred evaluating root project 'gradle-test-build'.
   > Unable to expand TAR '/tmp/gradle-test-build/jdk-8u40-linux-x64.tar.gz'
       The tar might be corrupted or it is compressed in an unexpected way.
       By default the tar tree tries to guess the compression based on the file extension.
       If you need to specify the compression explicitly please refer to the DSL reference.
   
   * Try:
   Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
   
   BUILD FAILED
   
   Total time: 1.728 secs
   

4. Delete the build directory and try it again, and see the exact same behavior.

This has been tested with Gradle 2.2.1 and 2.3.

Any update?

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Thanks again for reporting this issue. We haven't heard back from you after our inquiry from November 15th. We are closing this issue now. Please create an issue on GitHub if you still feel passionate about getting it resolved.