RFE: java -L

[Jonathan Gibbons]

Hi Karen,

I've not yet found a need to override a module name from a tool, meaning 
I have not yet found a need to go
     javac -J-m:newjavac

so I'm not asking for that, but I'm not against it either.   There has 
long been a need to change where classes come from, as in
     javac -J-Xbootclasspath/p:value

so mostly I'm just asking for the new-world equivalent, with -L.

I'm not fussed about the name of the option either, partly because we're 
all over the place anyway with option names. For example, jmod supports 
-L and --library as synonyms, but java has no precedent for double-dash 
long option names.

As long as I don't have to prefix both the option and its argument with 
-J, I'll be satisfied. :-)

Having consistency between the tools (java, jmod, jpkg, etc) would be 
nice too!

-- Jon



On 05/21/2010 08:07 PM, Karen Kinnear wrote:
> Are you considering the same kind of change for java -m <module-name>? 
> It would be
> very nice to have these both as single strings rather than with two 
> components. I'd vote
> for -modulelibrary:value -module:value or something more meaningful 
> than just a single
> letter string.
>
> thanks,
> Karen
>
> On May 21, 2010, at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Gibbons wrote:
>
>> In the world of bootstrapping, it is common to use tools like javac, 
>> etc, and to override the location of the classes executed by those 
>> tools.  This is typically done by passing -Xbootclasspath to the 
>> underlying runtime, by prefixing it with -J, as in
>>
>>    javac -J-Xbootclasspath:value ...
>>
>> In our brave new world, there is no -Xbootclasspath; we get to use -L 
>> instead.   But it sure is ugly to have to prefix both the option name 
>> and value with -J, and write
>>
>>    javac -J-L -Jvalue
>>
>> Can we please change the options so that either -L can optionally 
>> take a value after a ':'  (i.e. "-L value" or "-L:value") or we have 
>> a new option like -XL which always takes the value after a ':' ?
>>
>> I'm looking at all the work we need to do in the build to allow us to 
>> build javac so that it is executed in module mode, and simplifying 
>> the -L option would make it a bunchy easier.
>>
>> -- Jon
>>
>>
>>
>>
>