hg: jdk7/jsn/jdk: 6717876: Make java.net.NetworkInterface.getIndex() public

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi,

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 12:43:59PM +0000, jean-christophe.collet at sun.com wrote:
> URL:       http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jsn/jdk/rev/f4289d75cd29
> 
> 6717876: Make java.net.NetworkInterface.getIndex() public
> Summary: Make getIndex() and getByIndex() public. Required a name change in native code
> Reviewed-by: alanb, chegar, michaelm

This seems to introduce a new public API in the java.net package.
I was wondering how that works for someone that wants to introduce
such things in openjdk. I do see the bug report that mentions making
this public should be done for JDK7. But there seems to missing a real
justification for adding these new interfaces. Is there any policy for
introducing such new public interfaces?

I might be reading this wrongly but it seems the only thing this API
does is expose some random internal "index" numbers for an
NetworkInterface. Seeing that there are no guarantees on whether there
are index numbers in the first place for any or all interfaces it seems
not that useful imho. An example of how an application would use this
new interface would be nice to get a better idea in what situations
this would be used.

Thanks,

Mark