Review request: White box testing API for HotSpot

[Joe Darcy]

Hi Mikael,

On 12/14/2011 4:25 AM, Mikael Gerdin wrote:
> Hi Joe,
>
> On 2011-12-14 05:25, Joe Darcy wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> On 12/13/2011 5:48 AM, Mikael Gerdin wrote:
>>> Thanks Kris and David for the idea!
>>>
>>> I ran into a small issue with this solution:
>>> when compiling the testcase javac can't find wb.jar.
>>>
>>> If I put wb.jar in jre/lib/ext javac finds it and the test works but
>>> I'm not sure if it's Ok to put a jar file in ext on the boot class
>>> path behind the back of the extension class loader.
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>
>> I believe this effort would be simplified if the new types were
>> unconditionally available in the JDK and not available depending on
>> build variations.
>
> In principle I agree with you, but with our current processes that 
> would cause a dependency on JDK changes for HotSpot tests.
> Say that I want to write a regression test and that I create a 
> WhiteBox API function that the test uses, when we do a nightly build 
> of HotSpot we only build HotSpot and copy the libjvm into a "stable" JDK.
> If this class came from the JDK I'd have to wait for a full promotion 
> cycle before I could use that class in the HotSpot test.

Well, there are a few other solutions that problem :-)

* Change the build so that selected files from the HotSpot repo can go 
into the bootclasspath
* Update integration procedures so that HotSpot uses a newer "stable" JDK
* Arrange for HotSpot integration to also be able to push some changes 
to the jdk repo

-Joe