Heads up: planned Harfbuzz update in jdk11u-dev

[Langer, Christoph]

Hi Andrew, all,

> On 09:19 Fri 14 Jan     , Baesken, Matthias wrote:
> > For one of the next jdk11 updates, an update to a more recent harfbuzz
> version is planned.
> >
> > However the new harfbuzz 2.7.2 / 2.8.0 updates need C++11 support (they
> are built with option -std=c++11).
> > So please check that
> >
> > a) your toolchain supports -std=c++11 or you have the option to update
> > your toolchain to a more recent version
> >
> >
> > or as a workaround
> >
> > b) check the -with-harfbuzz=system option to use another precompiled
> > harfbuzz version from your system
> >
> > Best regards, Matthias
> >
> 
> Why?
> 
> 11u is a stable release. I don't think it is appropriate to break existing build
> setups on a 3+ year old JDK.
> 
> If people want a newer HarfBuzz, they can use --with-harfbuzz=system or
> upgrade to a newer JDK.

Andrew, I principally agree with your point. We obviously should try to avoid changes that break existing build setups. However, OTOH, it would be very helpful if OpenJDK 11u can be updated to current harfbuzz versions. One of the main reasons is to be able to keep up with security fixes. I think we should really try to be creative to find a way how harfbuzz could be upgraded.

One approach would be to try to identify the breaking build environments in advance and see if people can make the necessary changes, e.g. updating compilers. If that's not possible in some cases, why can't these "old" build setups not fall back to --with-harfbuzz=system?

Maybe it could also be an option to add the updated harfbuzz version to the code base together with the current version and provide the latter to the old compiler scenarios?

I think further input from the community would be helpful and much appreciated.

Thanks & Best regards
Christoph