Why is java -version implemented in Java?

Thomas Stüfe thomas.stuefe at gmail.com
Fri Nov 20 16:22:15 UTC 2020


Hi,

java -version seems to be called by scripts very frequently to get the java
version. Folks complain about the time that takes.

I always wondered, why is this implemented in java? Which requires the
whole jvm machinery to start up just to print the version information.

VersionProps.java seems not to be very complex; that information could have
been baked into the launcher, or the hotspot.

Or is using 'java -version' as a simple VM test just too convenient?

Thanks, Thomas


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