getName

Configures module name, that is the name of the *.iml file.

It's optional because the task should configure it correctly for you. By default it will try to use the project.name or prefix it with a part of a project.path to make sure the module name is unique in the scope of a multi-module build. The 'uniqueness' of a module name is required for correct import into IDEA and the task will make sure the name is unique.

since 1.0-milestone-2

If your project has problems with unique names it is recommended to always run gradle idea from the root, i.e. for all subprojects. If you run the generation of the IDEA module only for a single subproject then you may have different results because the unique names are calculated based on IDEA modules that are involved in the specific build run.

If you update the module names then make sure you run gradle idea from the root, e.g. for all subprojects, including generation of IDEA project. The reason is that there may be subprojects that depend on the subproject with amended module name. So you want them to be generated as well because the module dependencies need to refer to the amended project name. Basically, for non-trivial projects it is recommended to always run gradle idea from the root.

For example see docs for IdeaModule