remove INCLUDE_NMT?

[Chris Plummer]

On 1/20/22 7:06 AM, Zhengyu Gu wrote:
>>
>> I think we need to hear from Zhengyu (original NMT author) and 
>> Aleksey Shiplev
>> (he often fixes Minimal build failures). If this idea moves forward 
>> to a PR,
>> then make sure the Build Team is included on the review. There maybe 
>> some
>> unexpected complications there...
>
> I vote for removing INCLUDE_NMT.
>
> IIRC, Chris (cc'd) added INCLUDE_NMT for minmal/embedded JVM, we would 
> like to hear his opinion.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Zhengyu

I think pretty much anything I have to say has been covered, but let me 
just summarize:

For JDK 8 and Compact Profiles we added support for minimalVM, which was 
built by disabling a bunch of different INCLUDE_XXX flags that were 
added specifically for building minimalVM. We could have gone with just 
a single MINIMAL flag to include or exclude all the features together, 
but decided to separate out the various excluded features in case 
someone wanted to build minimalVM with one or more of the features 
included. However, doing this was never actually officially supported 
and only got minimal testing. The INCLUDE_XXX flags were added solely 
for control of excluding certain features for footprint reasons. 
Portability did not play a role.

At this point I have no personal feelings regarding the removal of any 
INCLUDE_XXX flag. I think this decision should be left to those who 
actually make use of them and might care about the added footprint.

cheers,

Chris