Proposal: Newer version-string scheme for the Java SE Platform and the JDK

Robert Scholte rfscholte at apache.org
Fri Nov 3 13:02:34 UTC 2017


Thanks for accepting my additional disadvantages on the original proposal.
This new proposal looks good to me.

Robert

On Thu, 02 Nov 2017 16:11:48 +0100, <mark.reinhold at oracle.com> wrote:

> Here's a specific proposal, with commentary, and two questions.
>
> Summary: This is a time-based scheme, similar to alternative (C) in my
> earlier note [1][2] but even closer to the current scheme as defined in
> JEP 223 [3].  It's hence even less likely to surprise, and should be
> easier to adopt.
>
>                                   * * *
>
> Version numbers
> ---------------
>
> A version number, $VNUM, is a sequence of numerals of arbitrary length,
> separated by period characters.  The first four numerals are interpreted
> as follows:
>
>     $FEATURE.$INTERIM.$UPDATE.$EMERG
>
> where:
>
>   - $FEATURE -- The feature-release counter, incremented every six months
>     regardless of release content.  Thus the March 2018 release is 10,
>     the September 2018 release is 11, and so forth.  Features may be
>     added in a feature release; they may also be removed, if advance
>     notice was given at least one feature release ahead of time.
>     Incompatible changes may be made when justified.  (Formerly $MAJOR.)
>
>   - $INTERIM -- The interim-release counter, incremented for non-feature
>     releases that contain compatible bug fixes and enhancements but no
>     incompatible changes, no feature removals, and no changes to standard
>     APIs.  This counter is always zero for the current six-month release
>     model.  We reserve it here to leave flexibility for the future, so
>     that some future release model could say that JDK $N.1 and JDK $N.2
>     are compatible upgrades of JDK $N.  Leaving this counter at zero for
>     the current model has an additional benefit in that it increases the
>     degree to which version numbers continue to reflect, roughly, both
>     compatibility and significance.  (Formerly $MINOR.)
>
>   - $UPDATE -- The update-release counter, incremented every three months
>     for compatible update releases that fix security issues, regressions,
>     and bugs in newer features.  Thus the April 2018 release is 10.0.1,
>     the July release is 10.0.2, and so forth.  (Formerly $SECURITY, but
>     with a non-trivial incrementation rule.)
>
>   - $EMERG -- The emergency-release counter, incremented only when it's
>     necessary to produce an emergency release to fix an urgent security
>     issue.  Using an additional numeral for this purpose minimizes the
>     disruption to both developers and users of in-flight update releases.
>
> The fifth and later elements of version numbers are reserved for use by
> downstream consumers of the JDK code base.  The fifth element may be used
> to, e.g., identify implementor-specific patch releases.
>
> This is primarily a time-based scheme, since $FEATURE is incremented
> every six months regardless of release content and, for each feature
> release, $UPDATE is incremented every three months.  We do expect most
> feature releases to contain at least one or two significant features,
> and never to ship interim releases under the new release model, so in
> practice this scheme will often be very similar to a compatibility- or
> significance-oriented scheme like that of JEP 223.  JDK 10 is a feature
> release, JDK 10.0.1 and 10.0.2 are update releases with compatible bug
> fixes, and there is no interim JDK 10.1 release since in this model the
> next opportunity to add features is JDK 11.
>
> Version strings
> ---------------
>
> The overall format of version strings is unchanged.  A version string is
> a version number, $VNUM, optionally followed by pre-release, build, and
> other optional information, one of:
>
>     $VNUM(-$PRE)?\+$BUILD(-$OPT)?
>     $VNUM-$PRE(-$OPT)?
>     $VNUM(+-$OPT)?
>
> where $PRE is a pre-release identifier (e.g., `ea`), $BUILD is a build
> number, and $OPT is optional build information.
>
> Implementors who offer long-term support for a release should use an $OPT
> string that starts with "lts", e.g., 11.0.2+13-lts.
>
> System properties
> -----------------
>
> To the system properties mentioned in JEP 223 we add one new property:
>
>   java.version.date -- The GA date of this version, in ISO-8601
>   YYYY-MM-DD format.  For EA releases this will be the intended GA
>   date, i.e., some date in the future.  This value is not part of the
>   version string per se, but it will be displayed when useful and can
>   be retrieved via a new method on the `Runtime.Version` API.
>
> This new property makes it easy to figure out how old a release is, so
> that as a user you can understand how far behind you are.  It also
> reflects the security level of the release: A given GA release contains
> the latest security fixes if its version date is no earlier than that of
> any other GA release.
>
> Launcher
> --------
>
> The `java` launcher will display version strings and system properties as
> follows, for a hypothetical build 13 of JDK 10.0.1:
>
>     $ java --version
>     openjdk 10.0.1 2018-04-19
>     OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 10.0.1+13)
>     OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 10.0.1+13, mixed mode)
>     $
>
> Similarly, for a hypothetical build 42 of JDK 11, an LTS release:
>
>     $ java --version
>     openjdk 11 2018-09-20 LTS
>     OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11+42-lts)
>     OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11+42-lts, mixed mode)
>     $
>
>                                   * * *
>
> If you've read this far, two questions:
>
>   (1) Bearing in mind that no version-string scheme is ideal,
>       is this scheme acceptable?
>
>   (2) If this scheme is not acceptable then please explain why,
>       and identify exactly what you would change.
>
> Ground rules, as before: I'll give much greater weight to your first
> reply to this message than to any other, I'll ignore replies-to-replies,
> and I'll heavily discount replies that quote more text than add new text
> of their own.
>
> I'll summarize relevant replies in about a week, and then draft a JEP.
>
> - Mark
>
>
> [1]  
> http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/jdk-dev/2017-October/000007.html
> [2]  
> http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/jdk-dev/2017-November/000088.html
> [3] http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/223


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