Coming later in JDK 9: dropping support for javac -source/-target of 5/1.5 and older

[Joe Darcy]

Hello,

FYI, the "later in JDK 9" point will be arriving soon as the fix for

     JDK-8011044: Remove support for 1.5 and earlier source and target 
options

is nearing completion. Once this fix goes in, javac in JDK 9 will only 
support source/target 6/1.6 and higher.

Cheers,

-Joe

On 01/24/2014 02:49 PM, Joe Darcy wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Preparatory work [1] has already occurred in JDK 9 for the 
> implementation of
>
>     JEP 182: Policy for Retiring javac -source and -target Options
>     http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/182
>
> in the release. According the policy described in this JEP, the javac 
> in JDK 9 would only support -source and -target options in the set:
>
>     {6/1.6, 7/1.7, 8/1.8, 9/1.9}
>
> Consequently, -source/-target options like 5/1.5, 1.4, etc. will *not* 
> be supported anymore. However, javac and related tools would still be 
> able to recognize and process older classfiles.
>
> Regards,
>
> -Joe
>
> [1] 8031651: Remove unneeded -source and -target flags in jdk repo 
> regression tests
> http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk9/dev/jdk/rev/6744e0c2459f
>
> 8031745: Remove unneeded/obsolete -source/-target options in javac 
> tests, part 1
> http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk9/dev/langtools/rev/b49771a49320