Support Gradle 7 and raise minimum supported version to 6.8

Closes gh-26026

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/asciidoc/build-tool-plugins.adoc

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Please refer to the plugin's documentation to learn more:
 [[build-tool-plugins-gradle-plugin]]
 == Spring Boot Gradle Plugin
 The Spring Boot Gradle Plugin provides Spring Boot support in Gradle, letting you package executable jar or war archives, run Spring Boot applications, and use the dependency management provided by `spring-boot-dependencies`.
-It requires Gradle 6 (6.3 or later).
+It requires Gradle 6.8 or 7.x.
 Please refer to the plugin's documentation to learn more:
 
 * Reference ({spring-boot-gradle-plugin-docs}[HTML] and {spring-boot-gradle-plugin-pdfdocs}[PDF])

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/asciidoc/getting-started.adoc

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Explicit build support is provided for the following build tools:
 | 3.3+
 
 | Gradle
-| 6 (6.3 or later)
+| 6.8.x and 7.x
 |===
 
 
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ More details on getting started with Spring Boot and Maven can be found in the {
 
 [[getting-started-gradle-installation]]
 ==== Gradle Installation
-Spring Boot is compatible with Gradle 6 (6.3 or later).
+Spring Boot is compatible with Gradle 6.8 and 7.x.
 If you do not already have Gradle installed, you can follow the instructions at https://gradle.org.
 
 Spring Boot dependencies can be declared by using the `org.springframework.boot` `group`.

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-tools/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/asciidoc/index.adoc

@@ -42,8 +42,7 @@ Andy Wilkinson, Scott Frederick
 == Introduction
 The Spring Boot Gradle Plugin provides Spring Boot support in https://gradle.org[Gradle].
 It allows you to package executable jar or war archives, run Spring Boot applications, and use the dependency management provided by `spring-boot-dependencies`.
-Spring Boot's Gradle plugin requires Gradle 6 (6.3 or later).
-Gradle's {gradle-userguide}/configuration_cache.html[configuration cache] is supported when using Gradle 6.7 or later.
+Spring Boot's Gradle plugin requires Gradle 6.8 or 7.x and can be used with Gradle's {gradle-userguide}/configuration_cache.html[configuration cache].
 
 In addition to this user guide, {api-documentation}[API documentation] is also available.
 

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-tools/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/docs/asciidoc/managing-dependencies.adoc

 [[managing-dependencies]]
 == Managing Dependencies
-To manage dependencies in your Spring Boot application, you can either apply the {dependency-management-plugin}[`io.spring.dependency-management`] plugin or, if you are using Gradle 6 or later, use Gradle's native bom support.
+To manage dependencies in your Spring Boot application, you can either apply the {dependency-management-plugin}[`io.spring.dependency-management`] plugin or use Gradle's native bom support.
 The primary benefit of the former is that it offers property-based customization of managed versions, while using the latter will likely result in faster builds.
 
 

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-tools/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/gradle/plugin/SpringBootPlugin.java

@@ -95,9 +95,9 @@ public class SpringBootPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
 
 	private void verifyGradleVersion() {
 		GradleVersion currentVersion = GradleVersion.current();
-		if (currentVersion.compareTo(GradleVersion.version("6.3")) < 0) {
-			throw new GradleException("Spring Boot plugin requires Gradle 6 (6.3 or later). "
-					+ "The current version is " + currentVersion);
+		if (currentVersion.compareTo(GradleVersion.version("6.8")) < 0) {
+			throw new GradleException(
+					"Spring Boot plugin requires Gradle 6.8.x or 7.x. " + "The current version is " + currentVersion);
 		}
 	}
 

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-tools/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/gradle/junit/GradleCompatibilityExtension.java

@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ final class GradleCompatibilityExtension implements TestTemplateInvocationContex
 			GRADLE_VERSIONS = Arrays.asList("7.0");
 		}
 		else {
-			GRADLE_VERSIONS = Arrays.asList("6.3", "6.4.1", "6.5.1", "6.6.1", "6.7.1", "current", "7.0");
+			GRADLE_VERSIONS = Arrays.asList("current", "7.0");
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ final class GradleCompatibilityExtension implements TestTemplateInvocationContex
 			List<TestTemplateInvocationContext> invocationContexts = new ArrayList<>();
 			invocationContexts.add(new GradleVersionTestTemplateInvocationContext(version, false));
 			boolean configurationCache = gradleCompatibility.configurationCache();
-			if (configurationCache && GradleVersion.version(version).compareTo(GradleVersion.version("6.7")) >= 0) {
+			if (configurationCache) {
 				invocationContexts.add(new GradleVersionTestTemplateInvocationContext(version, true));
 			}
 			return invocationContexts.stream();

spring-boot-project/spring-boot-tools/spring-boot-gradle-plugin/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/gradle/plugin/SpringBootPluginIntegrationTests.java

@@ -40,15 +40,15 @@ class SpringBootPluginIntegrationTests {
 	@DisabledForJreRange(min = JRE.JAVA_14)
 	@Test
 	void failFastWithVersionOfGradle6LowerThanRequired() {
-		BuildResult result = this.gradleBuild.gradleVersion("6.2.2").buildAndFail();
+		BuildResult result = this.gradleBuild.gradleVersion("6.7.1").buildAndFail();
 		assertThat(result.getOutput())
-				.contains("Spring Boot plugin requires Gradle 6 (6.3 or later). The current version is Gradle 6.2.2");
+				.contains("Spring Boot plugin requires Gradle 6.8.x or 7.x. The current version is Gradle 6.7.1");
 	}
 
 	@DisabledForJreRange(min = JRE.JAVA_16)
 	@Test
 	void succeedWithVersionOfGradle6MatchingWithIsRequired() {
-		this.gradleBuild.gradleVersion("6.3").build();
+		this.gradleBuild.gradleVersion("6.8").build();
 	}
 
 }