Why is java -version implemented in Java?

Mario Torre neugens at redhat.com
Mon Nov 23 13:28:11 UTC 2020


On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 2:26 PM Mario Torre <neugens at redhat.com> wrote:
>
>  Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 2:02 PM Thomas Stüfe <thomas.stuefe at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > One thought I have, and I don't know if that is good or bad, is that the
> > > new, GNU-style long-option java --version that was introduced not too
> > > long ago is not as likely to have this legacy of expecting VM startup.
> > > It might be possible to redefine it to just print the version to stdout
> > > and just exit. But that also means that java -version and java --version
> > > behaves differently, and I don't know if that really is a good idea.
> > >
> > >
> > I like the idea of repurposing --version. It could be short-wired to
> > -Xinternalversion. "--version" certainly is snappier and easier to remember
> > :)
>
> I think think it's a good idea to have --version and -version behave
> differently, it would be too easy to make a typo.

whops, typo, I meant: I don't think it's a good idea :)

Cheers,
Mario
-- 
Mario Torre
Associate Manager, Software Engineering
Red Hat GmbH <https://www.redhat.com>
9704 A60C B4BE A8B8 0F30  9205 5D7E 4952 3F65 7898



More information about the jdk-dev mailing list