Create gradle configuration with file system (not archive)

Question

I have an ear format project with several military modules.

Using standard EAR mechanisms for dependencies:

dependencies { deploy project(path: "war1", configuration: "archives") deploy project(path: "war2", configuration: "archives") } 

I can create exploded EAR output that looks something like this:

 exploded-ear |-- war1.war \-- war2.war 

However i really want

 exploded-ear |-- exploded-war1 \-- exploded-war2 

I searched for a while, and the configuration mechanisms in Gradle do not seem to allow anything that is not an archive. I want to define a configuration that references fileTree (which will be the site of the detonated war in my subprojects) so that my ear (and therefore my detonated ear) contains detonated wars.