jmx-dev [PATCH] JDK-8005472: com/sun/jmx/remote/NotificationMarshalVersions/TestSerializationMismatch.sh failed on windows

[Stuart Marks]

On 2/8/13 8:37 AM, Chris Hegarty wrote:
>> Jon Gibbons suggested invoking the compiler API directly from java
>> instead of writing a shell script. Doing this seems fairly simple, and I
>> think it would be advantageous to keep things entirely in Java. I may
>> attempt to rewrite the defaultSVID test using the compiler API.
>
> Here's a test that does just that.
>
> http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk8/tl/jdk/file/2de8c6c2d652/test/sun/misc/JarIndex/metaInfFilenames/Basic.java

Oh cool, interesting.

This test invokes com.sun.tools.javac.Main.compile() and passes an array of 
String arguments, just like a command line. It seems pretty effective, at least 
for this case.

But that's not what Jon was talking about. :-)

I believe Jon was referring to the offical Java Compiler API (JSR 199) which 
lives in javax.tools. This API is more fiddly than just passing an array of 
strings to javac's main, but it's also considerably more flexible. For example, 
it's possible to use it to call the compiler directly on a String! (I haven't 
coerced it to compile a String directly to class bytes, but it should be 
possible to do so in principle.)

Anyway, this is good, we should investigate these approaches for a variety of 
use cases and develop a repertoire of techniques. Eventually we may be able to 
avoid writing shell script tests entirely.

s'marks