RFR: 8365898: Specification of java.lang.module.ModuleDescriptor.packages() method can be improved [v3]

[Jaikiran Pai]

On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 05:37:49 GMT, Jaikiran Pai <jpai at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> Can I please get a review of this trivial change to the `ModuleDescriptor.packages()` method's specification?
>> 
>> The change here clarifies that this method returns all packages that belong to the module and not just those that are exported or open. This clarification should help avoid any confusion that may have been caused by the second paragraph in that method's specification which talks about exported and open packages.
>> 
>> This updated specification matches the existing implementation of this method.
>> 
>> I believe this will require a CSR, which I'll create shortly.
>
> Jaikiran Pai has updated the pull request incrementally with one additional commit since the last revision:
> 
>   Alan's review

Hello Chen,

> There is a parallel structure ModulePackagesAttribute in the Class-File API that has the same problem. I checked the [JVMS](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se24/html/jvms-4.html#jvms-4.7.26) and it seems that attribute does not mention "all packages" too

I had a look at that attribute and what it returns against the java.base module:


final Path moduleInfo = ... // java.base module-info.class
final ClassModel cm = ClassFile.of().parse(moduleInfo);
final List<ModulePackagesAttribute> attrs = cm.findAttributes(Attributes.modulePackages());
for (final ModulePackagesAttribute mpa : attrs) {
    for (final PackageEntry e : mpa.packages()) {
...


and it does indeed return all the packages. If not the JVMS text, perhaps the API specification of `java.lang.classfile.attribute.ModulePackagesAttribute.packages()` method can be simplified to say that it returns all packages? Perhaps as a separate issue?

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PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/26928#issuecomment-3222721751