Backporting JDK-8210483 to Java 11

[Andrew Dinn]

Hi Vitaly,

On 06/02/2019 15:27, Vitaly Davidovich wrote:
> Yes, I'd assume the difficulty and perceived (in)stability of a backport
> request would be weighed in the decision to backport or not.  But, this
> is a bug fix - javac fails on fairly pedestrian code.

It may seem counter-intuitive but Brian is 100% correct in stating that
decisions over backports require balancing of pros and cons -- even in
cases where the proposed backport is a bug fix. Changes may have
unintended consequences. Risk aversion sometimes trumps corrective
action, especially when correcting a rare error case.

> Again, I'd imagine a javac bug of the sort here would be deemed critical
> to backport to an LTS release.  But ok, if the answer is "refer to your
> LTS provider", then so be it. 
What Brian specifically recommended was that you negotiated this request
with the maintainer of a specific LTS release. When the maintainer has a
private, proprietary tree (like, say, Oracle) the utility of such a
request may depend on you being in a commercial, contractual
relationship. An alternative route is to approach those maintaining the
tree for the continuing open source project. Fixes applied to that tree
should appear in subsequent open source LTS releases which you will be
able to obtain without the requirement to be in a commercial,
contractual relationship.

Neither path guarantees a patch will be provided. Neither rules it out.

At this point I would normally route you straight to the jdk11u project
maintainer -- except that the jdk11u project is in the process of being
handed over from Oracle to an as yet unconfirmed project lead. That
situation ought to change very soon and, when it does, I suggest you
post to the jdk updates list (jdk-updates-dev at openjdk.java.net) asking
whether a backport is possible.

Bonus points would definitely be awarded if your request included a
jdk11-ready version of the upstream patch in that request, preferably
accompanied with reports of tests confirming its validity. And, as Brian
hinted: What do points mean? a healthy open source eco-system!

regards,


Andrew Dinn
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