--add-opens for entire module

[Alan Bateman]

On 28/12/2016 07:30, Andrew Guibert wrote:

>
> In the currently accepted proposal for #ReflectiveAccessToNonExportedTypes
> [1], it is described that an entire module can be opened with the following
> example:
>
> open module foo.bar {
>      exports com.foo.bar;
>      requires hibernate.core;
>      requires hibernate.entitymanager;
> }
>
> The current syntax for --add-opens option is:
>
>    --add-opens <module>/<package>=<target-module>(,<target-module>)*
>
> Namely, the --add-opens option can only be used to open specific packages
> from a module, whilst in a module-info.java it is possible to open an
> entire module with a single directive. Therefore, I would like to propose
> altering the --add-opens option to more closely match what is achievable in
> a module-info file, such as:
>
>    --add-opens <module>[/<package>]=<target-module>(,<target-module>)*
>
> So if a <package> is not specified, the entire module would be open for
> deep reflection at run time.
>
> Being able to open an entire module with a single JVM option will ease the
> migration of existing java programs to the new modular JDK.
As Nicolai notes, the `--add-opens` option can't be used to open a 
package unconditionally, it is instead the equivalent of the reflective 
addOpens to open a package to specific modules (or "all unnamed modules" 
via a special token). There has been suggestions along the way for a 
option that forces a module to open all its packages but that has been 
avoided to date, mostly because it would be an attractive nuisance.

Have you looked at the @-file support? If you need a large number of 
`--add-opens` options then it might be easier to put them in a file and 
specify them to the java launcher as an @-file.

-Alan