Why is java -version implemented in Java?

[Alan Bateman]

On 20/11/2020 19:44, Thomas Stüfe wrote:
> :
>
> I know about the "release" file, but this does not seem like an 
> obvious solution. I see this file mentioned as a way to quickly get 
> the java release info, but it seems so strange and non-obvious. I feel 
> bad that users have to even do that.
>

The release file was added (I think JDK 7) to allow humans and scripts 
easily identify the run-time image. Running `java -version` is not an 
option in many cases, esp. when there is a possibility that the image is 
for a different platform or architecture. I remember there were issues 
some scripts (and one IDE in particular) that was peeking into jvm.dll 
to get vendor information. More recently, the release file was extended 
via JEP 220 so that scripts could easily identify the modules used to 
build that image. So I think it is very useful, even if it's not exactly 
what you want here.

-Alan