Java compiler API not supporting non-standard options such as -XDignore.symbol.file?

[Peter Niederwieser]

Hi compiler developers,

I'm working on the Java compiler integration for the Gradle build tool (http://gradle.org). Our main way of interacting with the Java compiler is the Java compiler API. Among other things, this allows us to have a long-running compiler process that can be reused over time, which is considerably faster than forking a new compiler every time.

I've noticed that the Java compiler API seems to silently ignore some of the options supported by the (Oracle JDK) command-line compiler. A concrete example is -XDignore.symbol.file=true, which some Gradle users need in order to be able to compile against internal JDK classes (e.g. com.sun.image.codec.jpeg.JPEGCodec). Is this a known issue, or is it even a feature (perhaps because -XDignore.symbol.file is a non-standard option)? To achieve the best possible compiler integration in Gradle, it would help a lot if the compiler API accepted exactly the same options as the corresponding command-line compiler.

Thanks for any insights.

Cheers,
Peter

--
Peter Niederwieser 
Principal Developer, Gradleware
http://www.gradle.org
http://www.gradleware.com
Creator, Spock Framework
http://spockframework.org

Join us at the Gradle eXchange 2013, Oct 28th in London, UK: http://skillsmatter.com/event/java-jee/gradle-exchange-2013
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