JDK-8177390: java -version does not differentiate between which port of AArch64 is used

[Mario Torre]

Hi all,

[Sorry for cross posting to the aarch64 mailing list, please try to
keep all replies to jdk9-dev]

I have a proposed fix for JDK-8177390[1]. The whole issue can be seen
in details on the aarch64-port-dev thread linked in the bug report[2],
but to summarise, we now have two implementations for the aarch64, one
is the "original" community contribution and the other is the Oracle
version that landed recently in the repositories.

The two versions can be build side by side, which is great since users
can compare very easily the two implementations, have a feeling of the
performances, study the differences in the implementations etc...
however, once compiled there is no easy way to tell which one is
which, unless you are using the downstream packaged versions, where
the name of the JDK may offer a small hint.

This is more than just an annoyance, though, it will make life
extremely difficult for bug reporting and hunting, and the hotspot
crash files may not help either, so we think this should be fixed asap
(and the reason why I filed the bug report with a priority a bit
higher than usual).

It was suggested to play with one of the java.vendor strings to
address this, so I'm proposing a patch to alter the java.vendor.url to
point to either the usual java.oracle.com or to the aarg64 project
page, depending on the choice of the port at compilation time:

http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~neugens/8177390/webrev.1/

We would really like to have this patch in before the JDK9 is
released, I understand that we need to seek guidance from project
leads for that to happen at this stage of development.

The patch was taken on the jdk9 client repository, I'm not sure if I
will also need to push separately to 10 or if this will be an
automatic forward port.

Please, let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Mario

[1] https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8177390
[2] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/aarch64-port-dev/2017-March/004319.html