JDK 16 enters Rampdown Phase One next week

[mark.reinhold at oracle.com]

JDK 16 enters Rampdown Phase One next week, on Thursday, 10 December.
Changes intended for JDK 16 should be in the main-line repository
(https://github.com/openjdk/jdk) by 16:00 UTC on that day [1].

At that time we’ll fork the main line to the JDK 16 stabilization
repository, jdk16, and promote next week’s build and all remaining
JDK 16 builds from there.

We’ll semi-automatically merge changes pushed to jdk16 into the
main-line repository, as we have in previous feature-release
transitions.  This means that:

  - If you make a change in JDK 16 then you needn't do any extra
    work to get it into the main line, though if a merge conflict
    arises then you might be asked to help resolve it.

  - If you need to make a change in both JDK 16 and the main line
    then just push it to JDK 16, and wait for the automatic merge
    to complete.

Changes pushed to the main line after 16:00 UTC next Thursday will
be bound for JDK 17 only, unless they're subsequently back-ported
to JDK 16.

The Rampdown Phase One process is defined in JEP 3 [2].

- Mark


[1] https://time.is/1600_10_December_2020_in_UTC?JDK_16_Rampdown_Phase_One
[2] https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/3