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

[Jonathan Gibbons]

@David, note that -XD... is a javac flag, not a JVM flag.

That being said, all javac options beginning -XD are non-standard, 
undocumented and unsupported.

The javac behavior to use the internal symbol file for the platform 
classes is just the default behavior. If you explicitly set the 
PLATFORM_CLASS_PATH to be used for the compilation, then you should 
bypass the default behavior to try and use the symbol file.   Having 
said that, I would be remiss if I did not discourage you and your users 
from using internal JDK API. The warnings generated by javac regarding 
the use of internal API are there for a reason ...

-- Jon

On 10/11/2013 03:44 PM, David M. Lloyd wrote:
> Perhaps it doesn't work because the compiler API doesn't actually 
> start a JVM up, so it's meaningless to pass options to the JVM?
>
> Try just setting the "ignore.symbol.file" system property to true in 
> that process.
>
> On 10/11/2013 05:06 PM, Peter Niederwieser wrote:
>> Anyone? Do you have a public issue tracker where I can submit this?
>>
>> Peter
>>
>> On Oct 7, 2013, at 3:35 AM, Peter Niederwieser <pniederw at gmail.com
>> <mailto:pniederw at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi compiler developers,
>>>
>>> I'm working on the Java compiler integration for the Gradle build tool
>>> (http://gradle.org <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.gradle.org/>
>>> http://www.gradleware.com <http://www.gradleware.com/>
>>> Creator, Spock Framework
>>> http://spockframework.org <http://spockframework.org/>
>>>
>>> Join us at the GradleeXchange 2013, Oct 28th in London, UK:
>>> http://skillsmatter.com/event/java-jee/gradle-exchange-2013
>>
>
>