Xbootclasspath/a adds CWD to boot class path

Alan Bateman Alan.Bateman at oracle.com
Tue Sep 26 11:16:29 UTC 2017


On 26/09/2017 11:45, Michael Rasmussen wrote:
> Hi
>
> We have discovered an issue with using -Xbootclasspath/a on Java 9.
> if you add -Xbootclasspath/a as JVM argument, the current working directory
> also gets added to boot class path!
Just for resources, you shouldn't see classes in the working directory 
defined to the boot loader unless you specify the working directory to 
-Xbootclasspath/a.

In any case, it is fixed in jdk10/master. Historically there has been 
inconsistencies between class loading and locating resources with the 
boot loader at corner cases involving empty elements in the boot class 
path. Those inconsistencies were sorted out early in JDK 9 but we 
(embarrassingly) regressed later in JDK 9. When it came up in July then 
it was well below the bar needed to delay the release.

As regards the value of the internal jdk.boot.class.path.append property 
used to communicate the value of -Xbootclasspath/a then I agree this 
could be cleaned up. However, it should be benign, at least in jdk10/master.

-Alan


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