Fix proposal: JDK-8219378 NPE in ReflectionFactory.newMethodAccessor when langReflectAccess not initialized

[Mandy Chung]

On 2/25/19 5:12 AM, Andrew Leonard wrote:
> Hi Mandy,
> I must admit I don't completely follow the logic of the existing 
> Modifier init of langReflectAccess, the comment indicates a "protocol 
> between java.lang and java.lang.reflect". 

That sets up the shared secret for ReflectionFactory to access
non-public members in java.lang.reflect.

> I can try moving the clinit 
> code from Modifier to AccessibleObject, but I question is there some 
> reason it is there? Would we be sure in moving it we are not missing 
> something?

ReflectionFactory is the internal support for reflection.
The methods that access LangReflectAccess shared secrets
should have a Method, Field or Constructor in hand.  The
ReflectionFactory::newField and newMethod that don't take
Field/Method parameter are unused (I suspect they were
used by the VM native reflection implementation previously.
That led me to suggest to move setLangReflectAccess to
AccessibleObject.

AccessibleObject is initialized very early during startup
by the VM.  My proposed fix would change the list of
classes loaded during early startup but it would need to
look at closely.

Having a second thought, my proposed fix can be a follow-on
clean up. I'm okay with your point fix that resolves JDK-8219378.
I will file a JBS issue for the follow-on clean up.  What do
you think?

thanks
Mandy