ProcessImpl: Can we obsolete the vfork mode?

[Alan Bateman]

On 15/05/2025 17:52, Thomas Stüfe wrote:
> :
>
> However,  we also could just get rid of vfork. That would simplify 
> things alot. We have moved to posix_spawn-by-default with JDK 13 in 
> 2019 (https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8213192). That is a long 
> time ago; probably long enough to ween all customers off vfork use.
>
> What do people think?
>

I haven't see any complaints or JBS issues since the change in JDK 13.  
It's possible that there deployments running with 
jdk.lang.Process.launchMechanism set to vfork but my guess is that this 
configuration knob isn't widely known. If there are deployments doing 
this then there must be some reason, and I think we would have heard 
about it via a JBS issue by now.

I checked the JDK release notes.  The property was documented in the JDK 
12 release notes. The release note in JDK 13 about the move to 
posix_spawn didn't name the property to go back to vfork.

So my initial reaction is that removing vfork would not be disruptive.

-Alan