How do I add a new sourceset to Gradle? http://stackoverflow.com/a/37882006/529977

integrationTest.gradle

apply plugin: 'java'

// apply the runtimeClasspath from "test" sourceSet to the new one
// to include any needed assets: test, main, test-dependencies and main-dependencies
sourceSets {
    integrationTest {
        compileClasspath += sourceSets.test.runtimeClasspath
        // somehow this redeclaration is needed, but should be irrelevant
        // since runtimeClasspath always expands compileClasspath
        runtimeClasspath += sourceSets.test.runtimeClasspath
    }
}

// define custom test task for running integration tests
task integrationTest(type: Test) {
    testClassesDir = sourceSets.integrationTest.output.classesDir
    classpath = sourceSets.integrationTest.runtimeClasspath
}
integrationTest.dependsOn test

(!) as it turns out, the single use of sourceSet enhancements without configurations or output results in a make error in idea after initally opening a project. the build dependency (here: test) for the new "module" (here: integrationTest) isn't available upon first compileTestJava

open for testing and analysis, as found in https://github.com/bmuschko/gradle-docker-plugin/blob/master/gradle/integration-test.gradle

sourceSets {
    integrationTest {
        java
        resources
        compileClasspath += sourceSets.main.output + sourceSets.testSetup.output + configurations.testRuntime
        runtimeClasspath += output + compileClasspath
    }
}

task integrationTest(type: Test) {
    description = 'Runs the integration tests.'
    group = 'verification'
    testClassesDir = sourceSets.integrationTest.output.classesDir
    classpath = sourceSets.integrationTest.runtimeClasspath
    mustRunAfter test

    reports {
        html.destination = project.file("$html.destination/integration")
        junitXml.destination = project.file("$junitXml.destination/integration")
    }
}

check.dependsOn integrationTest

idea.module {
    sourceSets.integrationTest.allSource.srcDirs.each {
        testSourceDirs += it
    }

    scopes.TEST.plus += [configurations.integrationTestCompile]
    scopes.TEST.plus += [configurations.integrationTestRuntime]
}

The latter block reads like "enabling IntelliJ Idea handling integrationTest sourceSet as test module"
see also: https://gist.github.com/childnode/6df6d14c6b3aa47a327bb73ffd731444