This is my preferred syntax for getting the stdout from exec:
def stdout = new ByteArrayOutputStream()
exec{
commandLine "whoami"
standardOutput = stdout;
}
println "Output:\n$stdout";
Found here: http://gradle.1045684.n5.nabble.com/external-process-execution-td1431883.html
(Note that page has a typo though and mentions ByteArrayInputStream instead of ByteArrayOutputStream)