About the name "Hermetic Java"...

Magnus Ihse Bursie magnus.ihse.bursie at oracle.com
Thu Apr 17 16:31:56 UTC 2025


The name "Hermetic Java" has been bugging me a long time. I don't think 
there is much of a correlation between the general concept of 
hermeticity and the goal of the Hermetic Java project.

The dictionary definition of "hermetic" is:

​* (specialist) tightly closed so that no air can escape or enter 
(synonym: airtight)
* (formal, disapproving) closed and difficult to become a part of

I don't think this name signals the purpose or functionality to the 
users. Also, it does not help that the pre-existing terminology of 
"hermetic builds" mean that you download all dependencies ahead of time, 
and can then build on an air-gapped machine. (This is, imho, a much 
better use of "hermetic".)

I've been thinking about alternative names for a while, and I think that 
just a plain and clear "Single-Binary Java" would be the best. No-one 
can misunderstand it. It aligns with the overall tendency in Java to 
actually call things what they are. And it is just one syllable longer 
than "hermetic". :)

(My runner-up suggestion is "Monolithic Java". But things can be 
monolithic in so many way, so I don't think that's nearly as helpful.)

I'm not saying we need to rename the branch or project or anything, but 
the artifacts generated by the project, like documentation and end-user 
fronting information, should use "Single-Binary Java" instead. And 
methods like "JVM_UseHermeticJDKImage" should be called 
"JVM_UseSingleBinaryJDKImage" instead.

/Magnus
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