Configuring your Project

You can configure your Mill build in a number of ways:

Compilation & Execution Flags

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"

  def scalacOptions = Seq("-Ydelambdafy:inline")

  def forkArgs = Seq("-Xmx4g")

  def forkEnv = Map("HELLO_MY_ENV_VAR" -> "WORLD")
}

You can pass flags to the Scala compiler via scalacOptions. By default, foo.run runs the compiled code in a subprocess, and you can pass in JVM flags via forkArgs or environment-variables via forkEnv.

You can also run your code via

mill foo.runLocal

Which runs it in-process within an isolated classloader. This may be faster since you avoid the JVM startup, but does not support forkArgs or forkEnv.

If you want to pass main-method arguments to run or runLocal, simply pass them after the foo.run/foo.runLocal:

mill foo.run arg1 arg2 arg3
mill foo.runLocal arg1 arg2 arg3

Adding Ivy Dependencies

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.12.4"
  def ivyDeps = Agg(
    ivy"com.lihaoyi::upickle:0.5.1",
    ivy"com.lihaoyi::pprint:0.5.2",
    ivy"com.lihaoyi::fansi:0.2.4",
    ivy"${scalaOrganization()}:scala-reflect:${scalaVersion()}"
  )
}

You can define the ivyDeps field to add ivy dependencies to your module. The ivy"com.lihaoyi::upickle:0.5.1" syntax (with ::) represents Scala dependencies; for Java dependencies you would use a single : e.g. "ivy"com.lihaoyi:upickle:0.5.1". If you have dependencies cross-published against the full Scala version (eg. 2.12.4 instead of just 2.12), you can use ::: as in ivy"org.scalamacros:::paradise:2.1.1".

To select the test-jars from a dependency use the following syntax: ivy"org.apache.spark::spark-sql:2.4.0;classifier=tests.

Please consult the Library Dependencies in Mill section for even more details.

Repository configuration

By default, these are resolved from maven central, but you can add your own resolvers by overriding the repositoriesTask task in the module:

build.sc
import coursier.maven.MavenRepository

def repositoriesTask = T.task { super.repositoriesTask() ++ Seq(
  MavenRepository("https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases")
) }

To add custom resolvers to the initial bootstrap of the build, you can create a custom ZincWorkerModule, and override the zincWorker method in your ScalaModule by pointing it to that custom object:

build.sc
import coursier.maven.MavenRepository

object CustomZincWorkerModule extends ZincWorkerModule with CoursierModule {
  def repositoriesTask() = T.task { super.repositoriesTask() ++ Seq(
    MavenRepository("https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases")
  ) }
}

object YourBuild extends ScalaModule {
  def zincWorker = CustomZincWorkerModule
  // ... rest of your build definitions
}

Runtime and compile-time dependencies

If you want to use additional dependencies at runtime or override dependencies and their versions at runtime, you can do so with runIvyDeps.

build.sc: Declaring runtime dependencies
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends JavaModule {
  def runIvyDeps = Agg(
    ivy"ch.qos.logback:logback-classic:1.2.7",
    ivy"com.h2database:h2:2.0.202"
  )
}

Mill has no test-scoped dependencies!

You might be used to test-scoped dependencies from other build tools like Maven, Gradle or sbt. As test modules in Mill are just regular modules, there is no special need for a dedicated test-scope. You can use ivyDeps and runIvyDeps to declare dependencies in test modules.

You can also declare compile-time-only dependencies with compileIvyDeps. These are present in the compile classpath, but will not propagated to the transitive dependencies.

build.sc: Declaring compile-time-only dependencies
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends JavaModule {
  def compileIvyDeps = Agg(
    ivy"javax.servlet:sevlet-api:2.5"
  )
}
Compile-time dependencies are translated to provided-scoped dependencies when publish to Maven or Ivy-Repositories.

Keeping up-to-date with Scala Steward

It’s always a good idea to keep your dependencies up-to-date.

If your project is hosted on GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket, you can use Scala Steward to automatically open a pull request to update your dependencies whenever there is a newer version available.

Scala Steward can also keep your Mill version up-to-date.

Adding a Test Suite

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"

  object test extends Tests {
    def ivyDeps = Agg(ivy"com.lihaoyi::utest:0.8.2")
    def testFramework = "utest.runner.Framework"
  }
}

For convenience, you can also use one of the predefined test frameworks:

  • TestModule.Junit4

  • TestModule.Junit5

  • TestModule.TestNg

  • TestModule.Munit

  • TestModule.ScalaTest

  • TestModule.Specs2

  • TestModule.Utest

build.sc: ScalaModule with UTest tests using the predefined TestModule.Utest
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"

  object test extends ScalaTests with TestModule.Utest {
    def ivyDeps = Agg(ivy"com.lihaoyi::utest:0.8.2")
  }
}

You can define a test suite by creating a nested module extending ScalaTests, and specifying the ivy coordinates and name of your test framework. This expects the tests to be laid out as follows:

build.sc
foo/
    src/
        Example.scala
    resources/
        ...
    test/
        src/
            ExampleTest.scala
        resources/
            ...
out/
    foo/
        ...
        test/
            ...

The above example can be run via

mill foo.test

By default, tests are run in a subprocess, and forkArg and forkEnv can be overridden to pass JVM flags & environment variables. You can also use

mill foo.test.testLocal

To run tests in-process in an isolated classloader.

If you want to pass any arguments to the test framework, simply put them after foo.test in the command line. e.g. uTest lets you pass in a selector to decide which test to run, which in Mill would be:

mill foo.test foo.MyTestSuite.testCaseName

You can define multiple test suites if you want, e.g.:

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"

  object test extends ScalaTests with TestModule.Utest {
    def ivyDeps = Agg(ivy"com.lihaoyi::utest:0.8.2")
  }
  object integration extends ScalaTests with TestModule.Utest {
    def ivyDeps = Agg(ivy"com.lihaoyi::utest:0.8.2")
  }
}

Each of which will expect their sources to be in their respective foo/test and foo/integration folder.

ScalaTests modules are ScalaModules like any other, and all the same configuration options apply.

Custom Test Frameworks

Integrating with test frameworks like Scalatest or specs2 is simply a matter of adding it to ivyDeps and specifying the testFramework you want to use.

Scalatest example:

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"

  object test extends Tests with TestModule.ScalaTest {
    def ivyDeps = Agg(ivy"org.scalatest::scalatest:3.0.4")
  }
}

Specs2 example:

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"

  object test extends Tests with TestModule.Specs2 {
    def ivyDeps = Agg(ivy"org.specs2::specs2-core:4.6.0")
  }
}

After that, you can follow the instructions in Adding a Test Suite, and use mill foo.test as usual, or pass args to the test suite via mill foo.test arg1 arg2 arg3.

Scala Compiler Plugins

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"

  def compileIvyDeps = Agg(ivy"com.lihaoyi:::acyclic:0.1.7")
  def scalacOptions = Seq("-P:acyclic:force")
  def scalacPluginIvyDeps = Agg(ivy"com.lihaoyi:::acyclic:0.1.7")
}

You can use Scala compiler plugins by setting scalacPluginIvyDeps. The above example also adds the plugin to compileIvyDeps, since that plugin’s artifact is needed on the compilation classpath (though not at runtime).

Remember that compiler plugins are published against the full Scala version (eg. 2.13.8 instead of just 2.13), so when including them make sure to use the ::: syntax shown above in the example.

Generating API Documentation

To generate API documenation you can use the docJar task on the module you’d like to create the documenation for. For example, given a module called example you could do:

mill example.docJar

This will result in your javaDoc being created in out/app/docJar.dest/javadoc.

For both Scala and Java modules there may be extra options that you’d like to pass specifically to either javadoc or scaladoc. You can pass these with javadocOptions and scalaDocOptions respectively.

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object example extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "3.1.3"

  def scalaDocOptions = Seq(
    "-siteroot",
    "mydocs",
    "-no-link-warnings"
  )
}

Scaladoc 3 Site Generation

When using Scala 3 you’re also able to use Scaladoc to generate a full static site next to your API documenation. This can include general documenation for your project and even a blog. While you can find the full documenation for this in the Scala 3 docs, below you’ll find some useful information to help you generate this with Mill.

By default, Mill will consider the site root as it’s called in Scala 3 docs, to be the value of docResources(). It will look there for your _docs/ and your _blog/ directory if any exist. Let’s pretend we have a project called example defined like this:

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object example extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "3.1.3"
}

Your project structure for this would look something like this:

.
├── build.sc
├── example
│  ├── docs
│  │  ├── _blog
│  │  │  ├── _posts
│  │  │  │  └── 2022-08-14-hello-world.md
│  │  │  └── index.md
│  │  └── _docs
│  │     ├── getting-started.md
│  │     ├── index.html
│  │     └── index.md
│  └── src
│     └── example
│        └── Hello.scala

After generating your docs with mill example.docJar you’ll find by opening your out/app/docJar.dest/javadoc/index.html locally in your browser you’ll have a full static site including your API docs, your blog, and your documenation!

Reformatting your code

Mill supports code formatting via scalafmt out of the box.

To have a formatting per-module you need to make your module extend mill.scalalib.scalafmt.ScalafmtModule:

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._, scalafmt._

object foo extends ScalaModule with ScalafmtModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
}

Now you can reformat code with mill foo.reformat command, or only check for misformatted files with mill foo.checkFormat.

You can also reformat your project’s code globally with mill mill.scalalib.scalafmt.ScalafmtModule/reformatAll __.sources command, or only check the code’s format with mill mill.scalalib.scalafmt.ScalafmtModule/checkFormatAll __.sources. It will reformat all sources that matches __.sources query.

If you add a .scalafmt.conf file at the root of you project, it will be used to configure formatting. It can contain a version key to specify the scalafmt version used to format your code. See the scalafmt configuration documentation for details.

Common Configuration

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

trait CommonModule extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
}

object foo extends CommonModule
object bar extends CommonModule {
  def moduleDeps = Seq(foo)
}

You can extract out configuration common to multiple modules into a trait that those modules extend. This is useful for providing convenience & ensuring consistent configuration: every module often has the same scala-version, uses the same testing framework, etc. and all that can be extracted out into the trait.

Global configuration

Mill builds on ammonite which allows you to define global configuration. Depending on how you start mill, one of two files will be loaded. For the build REPL (--repl or -i without specifying a target), ~/.mill/ammonite/predef.sc will be loaded, and for builds from the command line the file ~/.mill/ammonite/predefScript.sc will be included. You might want to create a symlink from one to the other to avoid duplication.

Example ~/.mill/ammonite/predef.sc

~/.mill/ammonite/predef.sc
val nexusUser = "myuser"
val nexusPassword = "mysecret"

Everything declared in the above file will be available to any build you run.

  def repositories = super.repositories ++ Seq(
    // login and pass are globally configured
    MavenRepository("https://nexus.mycompany.com/repository/maven-releases", authentication = Some(coursier.core.Authentication(nexusUser, nexusPassword)))
  )

Custom Tasks

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
}

def lineCount = T {

  foo.sources().flatMap(ref => os.walk(ref.path)).filter(os.isFile).flatMap(os.read.lines).size
}

def printLineCount() = T.command {
  println(lineCount())
}

You can define new cached Targets using the T {…​} syntax, depending on existing Targets e.g. foo.sources via the foo.sources() syntax to extract their current value, as shown in lineCount above. The return-type of a Target has to be JSON-serializable (using uPickle) and the Target is cached when first run until its inputs change (in this case, if someone edits the foo.sources files which live in foo/src. Cached Targets cannot take parameters.

You can print the value of your custom target using show, e.g.

mill show lineCount

You can define new un-cached Commands using the T.command {…​} syntax. These are un-cached and re-evaluate every time you run them, but can take parameters. Their return type needs to be JSON-writable as well, or (): Unit if you want to return nothing.

Your custom targets can depend on each other using the def bar = T {…​ foo() …​} syntax, and you can create arbitrarily long chains of dependent targets. Mill will handle the re-evaluation and caching of the targets' output for you, and will provide you a T.dest folder for you to use as scratch space or to store files you want to return.

Custom targets and commands can contain arbitrary code. Whether you want to download files (e.g. using mill.modules.Util.download), shell-out to Webpack to compile some Javascript, generate sources to feed into a compiler, or create some custom jar/zip assembly with the files you want (e.g. using mill.modules.Jvm.createJar), all of these can simply be custom targets with your code running in the T {…​} block.

Custom Modules

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object qux extends Module {
  object foo extends ScalaModule {
    def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
  }
  object bar extends ScalaModule {
    def moduleDeps = Seq(foo)
    def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
  }
}

Not every Module needs to be a ScalaModule; sometimes you just want to group things together for neatness. In the above example, you can run foo and bar namespaced inside qux:

mill qux.foo.compile
mill qux.bar.run

You can also define your own module traits, with their own set of custom tasks, to represent other things e.g. Javascript bundles, docker image building,:

build.sc
trait MySpecialModule extends Module {
  ...
}
object foo extends MySpecialModule
object bar extends MySpecialModule

Module/Task Names

build.sc
import mill._
import mill.scalalib._

object `hyphenated-module` extends Module {
  def `hyphenated-target` = T{
    println("This is a hyphenated target in a hyphenated module.")
  }
}

object unhyphenatedModule extends Module {
  def unhyphenated_target = T{
    println("This is an unhyphenated target in an unhyphenated module.")
  }
  def unhyphenated_target2 = T{
    println("This is the second unhyphenated target in an unhyphenated module.")
  }
}

Mill modules and tasks may be composed of the following character types:

  • Alphanumeric (A-Z, a-z, and 0-9)

  • Underscore (_)

  • Hyphen (-)

Due to Scala naming restrictions, module and task names with hyphens must be surrounded by back-ticks (`).

Using hyphenated names at the command line is unaffected by these restrictions.

mill hyphenated-module.hyphenated-target
mill unhyphenatedModule.unhyphenated_target
mill unhyphenatedModule.unhyphenated_target2

Overriding Tasks

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
  def compile = T {
    println("Compiling...")
    super.compile()
  }
  def run(args: String*) = T.command {
    println("Running..." + args.mkString(" "))
    super.run(args:_*)
  }
}

You can re-define targets and commands to override them, and use super if you want to refer to the originally defined task. The above example shows how to override compile and run to add additional logging messages, but you can also override ScalaModule#generatedSources to feed generated code to your compiler, ScalaModule#prependShellScript to make your assemblies executable, or ScalaModule#console to use the Ammonite REPL instead of the normal Scala REPL.

In Mill builds the override keyword is optional.

Unmanaged Jars

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
  def unmanagedClasspath = T {
    if (!os.exists(millSourcePath / "lib")) Agg()
    else Agg.from(os.list(millSourcePath / "lib").map(PathRef(_)))
  }
}

You can override unmanagedClasspath to point it at any jars you place on the filesystem, e.g. in the above snippet any jars that happen to live in the foo/lib/ folder.

Defining a Main Class

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
  def mainClass = Some("foo.bar.Baz")
}

Mill’s foo.run by default will discover which main class to run from your compilation output, but if there is more than one or the main class comes from some library you can explicitly specify which one to use. This also adds the main class to your foo.jar and foo.assembly jars.

Merge/exclude/relocate files from assembly

When you make a runnable jar of your project with assembly command, you may want to exclude some files from a final jar (like signature files, and manifest files from library jars), and merge duplicated files (for instance reference.conf files from library dependencies).

By default mill excludes all *.sf, *.dsa, *.rsa, and META-INF/MANIFEST.MF files from assembly, and concatenates all reference.conf files. You can also define your own merge/exclude rules.

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._
import mill.modules.Assembly._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
  def assemblyRules = Seq(
    Rule.Append("application.conf"), // all application.conf files will be concatenated into single file
    Rule.AppendPattern(".*\\.conf"), // all *.conf files will be concatenated into single file
    Rule.ExcludePattern(".*\\.temp"), // all *.temp files will be excluded from a final jar
    Rule.Relocate("shapeless.**", "shade.shapless.@1") // the `shapeless` package will be shaded under the `shade` package
  )
}

Downloading Non-Maven Jars

build.sc
import mill._, scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.13.12"
  def unmanagedClasspath = Agg(
    mill.modules.Util.download(
      "https://github.com/williamfiset/FastJavaIO/releases/download/v1.0/fastjavaio.jar",
      os.rel / "fastjavaio.jar"
    )
  )
}

You can also override unmanagedClasspath to point it at jars that you want to download from arbitrary URLs. Note that targets like unmanagedClasspath are cached, so your jar is downloaded only once and re-used indefinitely after that.

Using the Ammonite Repl / Scala console

All ScalaModules have a console and a repl target, to start a Scala console or an Ammonite Repl.

To use the latter, you can (and sometimes need to) customize the Ammonite version to work with your selected Scala version. The default Ammonite version is the one, which is used by Mill internally (Mill’s build.sc is an Ammonite script, after all). But depending on the Scala version you are using, there is probably no matching Ammonite release available. In order to start the repl, you have to specify a different available Ammonite version.

Example: Overriding ammoniteVersion to select a release compatible to the scalaVersion
import mill._. scalalib._

object foo extends ScalaModule {
  def scalaVersion = "2.12.6"
  def ammoniteVersion = "2.4.0"
}

Why is Ammonite tied to the exact Scala version?

This is because Ammonite depends on the Scala compiler. In contrast to the Scala library, compiler releases do not guarantee any binary compatibility between releases. As a consequence, Ammonite needs full Scala version specific releases.

The older your used Mill version or the newer the Scala version you want to use, the higher is the risk that the default Ammonite version will not match.