Gets the version name from the latest Git tag

branch.gradle

/*
 * Get the current branch name
 */
def getCurrentBranchName = { ->
    def stdout = new ByteArrayOutputStream()
    exec {
        commandLine 'git', 'symbolic-ref', 'HEAD', '--short'
        standardOutput = stdout
    }
    return stdout.toString().trim()
}

version.gradle

/*
 * Gets the version name from the latest Git tag
 */
def getVersionName = { ->
    def stdout = new ByteArrayOutputStream()
    exec {
        commandLine 'git', 'describe', '--tags'
        standardOutput = stdout
    }
    return stdout.toString().trim()
}

/*
Reference:
http://ryanharter.com/blog/2013/07/30/automatic-versioning-with-git-and-gradle/
*/

How to call it?

retval = getVersionName()