Unified JVM Logging and diagnostic options LogVMOutput, LogFile, DisplayVMOutput

[Man Cao]

Hello,

We (Java Platform Team at Google) found that in JDK9, the file generated by
-XX:+LogVMOutput no longer contains GC log messages, because the unified
JVM logging framework does not use the defaultStream and fileStream classes
and the tty variable. Similarly, related options such as LogFile,
DisplayVMOutput have no effect on the messages printed by the unified
logging framework.

The main problem for us is that most of our production Java servers use the
options "-XX:+LogVMOutput -XX:-DisplayVMOutput", to save the GC logs and
other VM messages. These flags would no longer work for JDK9's JVM logging
framework. In addition, the file generated by -XX:+LogVMOutput may contain
information that is not printed by the unified logging framework.

What is worse is that if LogFile and the output of unified logging
framework point to the same file, the file may contain partial or corrupted
messages from the unified logging framework. For example, consider the
following command:

java -Xlog::file=test.log -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions -XX:+LogVMOutput
-XX:LogFile=test.log

Then test.log would miss some of the messages that would be printed at the
beginning if you run "java -Xlog".

So our questions are:
1. Do you consider this is a bug for the unified logging framework that
should be fixed? Should the unified logging framework respect these
diagnostic options?

2. Is there a plan to deprecate these diagnostic options (LogVMOutput,
LogFile, DisplayVMOutput, etc.)? Will the defaultStream, fileStream classes
and the tty variable eventually removed from HotSpot?

Thanks,
Man