Update Gradle to 9.7.0

[AlexeyKuznetsov-DD]

What Does This Do

• Updates the Gradle wrapper from 9.6.1 to 9.7.0, including the generated wrapper JAR, distribution checksum, and URL.
• Keeps the GitLab CI Gradle cache/version key and Gradle smoke-test version fixture aligned with the wrapper.
• Isolates Muzzle's synthetic instrumentation and application classloaders from Gradle's bundled libraries while preserving access to platform JDK classes.

Motivation

This adopts Gradle 9.7.0.

The upgrade exposed an existing classloader-boundary problem in the Muzzle worker. Muzzle created its synthetic classloaders with ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader() as the parent. Because Muzzle runs inside Gradle, parent-first delegation made libraries bundled with the Gradle runtime visible as though they belonged to the instrumentation or target application classpath. Gradle 9.7 changed that runtime library set, which caused Muzzle compatibility checks to resolve classes that the tested dependency set did not actually provide and produced false failures.

Using no parent removed the Gradle leakage, but also hid platform JDK classes on modular JDKs. The final implementation uses the system classloader's parent: Muzzle retains the platform/boot layer needed for JDK classes, while Gradle's application classloader and its bundled dependencies stay outside the synthetic application classpath.

This Muzzle adjustment affects build-time validation only; it does not change the shipped agent's runtime classloading.

Additional Notes

Validation after merging current master:

• ./gradlew assemble — passed
• GitLab's sharded Muzzle runs were used while refining the classloader boundary.

Contributor Checklist

• Format the title according to the contribution guidelines
• Assign the type: and (comp: or inst:) labels in addition to any other useful labels
• Avoid using close, fix, or any linking keywords when referencing an issue
• Update the CODEOWNERS file on source file addition, migration, or deletion — not applicable
• Update public documentation with any new configuration flags or behaviors — not applicable
• Once approved, use merge queue to merge the PR

Jira ticket: [PROJ-IDENT]

[dd-octo-sts]

🟢 Java Benchmark SLOs — All performance SLOs passed

Suite	Status
Startup	🟢 pass

SLO thresholds are defined here based on automatically generated metrics. A warning is raised when results are within 5% of the threshold.

PR vs. master results

Scenario	Candidate	master	Δ (95% CI of mean)
startup:insecure-bank:iast:Agent	13.99 s	13.96 s	[-0.5%; +0.9%] (no difference)
startup:insecure-bank:tracing:Agent	12.89 s	12.98 s	[-1.5%; +0.0%] (no difference)
startup:petclinic:appsec:Agent	16.85 s	16.61 s	[+0.4%; +2.4%] (maybe worse)
startup:petclinic:iast:Agent	16.91 s	16.90 s	[-0.6%; +0.7%] (no difference)
startup:petclinic:profiling:Agent	16.77 s	16.83 s	[-1.5%; +0.8%] (no difference)
startup:petclinic:sca:Agent	16.72 s	16.54 s	[+0.2%; +2.0%] (maybe worse)
startup:petclinic:tracing:Agent	15.64 s	16.25 s	[-7.8%; +0.4%] (no difference)

Commit: 35c96599 · CI Pipeline · Benchmarking Platform UI

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Load and DaCapo benchmarks can be triggered manually in the GitLab pipeline. Results will appear in the Benchmarking Platform UI after completion.

[datadog-prod-us1-4]

More details

Muzzle’s synthetic loaders retained platform and declared classes while rejecting Gradle/system-only classes in both worker isolation modes and on JDK 8–25. The wrapper JAR is readable and every version pin agrees on 9.7.0.

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