[11u] RFC: Update Graal in OpenJDK 11 Updates?

[Andrew Haley]

On 3/24/20 12:14 PM, Langer, Christoph wrote:

> I also see a second potential motivation why OpenJDK 11 updates
> could be interested to incorporate those kind of changes. This is to
> be on par with the main Oracle JDK 11 Updates release. I think I
> mentioned that in my initial mail but it hasn't been part of the
> recent discussion between the both of you, Andrew and Doug. So,
> while we don't exactly know what Oracle did to their JDK11 Updates
> codebase, the backports of subsequent changes indicate that they
> must have incorporated something like the big bulk change of
> labs-openjdk-11. That would mean their in-tree Graal code of 11u is
> at the newer JDK13 level and hence the AOT and C2 replacement
> scenarios would have received those substantial updates.

OK, but trying to match substantial updates that we can't see seems to
me like chasing smoke: we'll never get there.

> On the other hand, I think for 11u we should be cautious and err on
> the side of stability. That would mean we deliberately don't pull
> those JVMCI and Graal updates into 11u. I think that's a bit the
> direction this discussion was moving to.

Indeed. Also, we don't want the tail to wag the dog (rather than the
dog to wag the tail.) Graal, while very promising, is only one of the
many uses for 11u, and I don't want us to get into a situation where
the needs of Graal determine the future of the project.

-- 
Andrew Haley  (he/him)
Java Platform Lead Engineer
Red Hat UK Ltd. <https://www.redhat.com>
https://keybase.io/andrewhaley
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