JDK 9 RFR of JDK-8072480: javac should support compilation for a specific platform version

[Jan Lahoda]

Hello Eric,

Thanks a lot for your feedback and changes! I'll fold them into the patch.

Thanks,
    Jan

On 21.5.2015 11:42, Erik Joelsson wrote:
> Hello Jan,
>
> On the build changes there are some things I would like to change.
>
> * The creation of the ct.sym file should be done in a separate file,
> with a separate top level target. The images target should just be about
> linking and pulling things together, not actual building/compiling of
> things.
> * The calls to MakeDir are not needed.
> * There are missing prerequisites in the rule for creating the symbols.
> * The jar file creation should use the SetupArchive macro.
> * Intermediate build files should be put into the $(SUPPORT_OUTPUTDIR).
> * I think it makes sense to have the ct.sym file be part of the
> exploded-image.
>
> Since this was quite a lot of changes, I took the liberty of
> implementing them. Here is a webrev with my suggestion for build changes:
>
> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~erikj/8072480/webrev.01/
>
> /Erik
>
> On 2015-05-21 09:01, Jan Lahoda wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> This is a patch adding a new option, -platform, to javac.
>>
>> Patch for the top-level repository is here:
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~jlahoda/8072480/webrev.00/top-level/
>>
>> Patch for the langtools repository is here:
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~jlahoda/8072480/webrev.00/langtools/
>>
>> These changes also require additional langtools changes as their
>> prerequisite:
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~jlahoda/8080675/webrev.00/
>>
>> Overall, one can imagine '-platform N' to have the same effect as
>> '-source N -target N -bootclasspath <APIs-for-N>'. The possible values
>> for 'N' are pluggable in a limited way, though (see
>> langtools/src/jdk.compiler/share/classes/com/sun/tools/javac/platform/PlatformProvider.java).
>> Note that this patch only introduces N=7 and N=8, which correspond to
>> Open JDK 7 and 8 GA.
>>
>> A tricky problem to solve is where to get the APIs for platform N. The
>> proposal is to include history data in the textual format inside the
>> OpenJDK repositories (the input data), process them at build time and
>> create a lib/ct.sym file holding the data in the JDK image. javac
>> running with the -platform option then compiles against the lib/ct.sym
>> file. The input history data are placed
>> <top-level-repository>/make/data/symbols (the sym.txt files). This
>> patches only includes data for OpenJDK 7 and 8, and only for public
>> APIs (more or less Java SE and JDK @Exported APIs).
>>
>> The size of the history data is currently ~6MB in the JDK checkout and
>> ~650kB inside the .hg directory (the size could change significantly
>> if additional classes/elements, like non-public API classes, would
>> need to be included). The lib/ct.sym file is currently ~4.5MB.
>>
>> The ct.sym file is a zip file containing signature files. The
>> signature files are similar to classfiles (so javac can read them as
>> classfiles), but are missing some attributes, most notably the Code
>> attribute. On the top-level, the ct.sym contains directories named
>> "7", "78" and "8". When compiling for version 'N', the bootclasspath
>> for that version is obtained by using directories which have 'N' in
>> their name.
>>
>> The sigfiles for ct.sym are created by
>> <top-level-repository>/make/tools/symbolgenerator/CreateSymbols.java.
>> The same file can also be used to construct the sym.txt files. Concise
>> instructions are part of the CreateSymbols.java.
>>
>> I am sending this as one review, as the changes together make one
>> feature, but the langtools and top-level changes are independent to a
>> great degree: the langtools changes add the "-platform" javac; and the
>> top-level changes add the history data and ability to build the ct.sym
>> file. If desired, these could be pushed and/or reviewed independently.
>>
>> Many thanks go to Jon Gibbons, Joe Darcy, Magnus Ihse Bursie, Alan
>> Bateman and others who have provided advices and help on the matter
>> before.
>>
>> Any insights/comments are wholeheartedly welcome.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>     Jan
>