Linux/AArch64 EA Build

[Johan Vos]

Hi Oliver,

The builds on jdk.java.net are uploaded there by Oracle, and I can not talk
about those.

The builds in maven central are uploaded by Gluon, and I can talk about
those.
We get the question about Linux AArch64 every now and then, and I fully
understand.
The main problem that we currently have is this: for the Linux x86_64
build, we use a devkit that is up-to-date with the required version of
compiler/toolchain/packages. This is really important to make sure we don't
build binaries that might have critical issues (that is, binaries that are
built with compilers/toolchains that might introduce those issues).
We don't have this devkit for Linux AArch64. Apart from Gluon, no company
is funding those builds. That doesn't mean we don't want to do it, but if
we do it, I want to be 100% sure that we do it in the best possible way.
Creating a linux-aarch64 build is very easy, but also very dangerous if it
is a bad one. Uploading such a build to maven central can be a disaster,
which we really want to avoid of course.

But I am 100% with you, I'd *love* to have the linux aarch64 builds as
officially supported builds (which is still a bit pathetic given that
almost nobody wants to pay for the work we did for those (to be clear: I am
not expecting developers to pay of course, I'm talking about companies that
benefit from this)).

So in order to get there, we need to improve the toolchain. We used to get
AWS credits, which allowed us to build on AWS Linux aarch64 instances for
free, but we don't get these anymore. Hence, today we typically cross
compile on our own hardware, and that is making the toolchain even more
challenging.
One of the things that I think we should do to get there is to specify the
requirements for compilers and toolchains for those "non-standard" builds
in the build.properties file.
I'll put that higher on my todo list -- I believe it is really required if
we want to build for linux aarch64. And I am personally convinced that
linux aarch64 is a major, extremely important target for JavaFX.

PS: This is somehow related to the discussion about reproducible builds,
which would be a great help as well.

- Johan


On Mon, May 13, 2024 at 11:55 AM Oliver Kopp <kopp.dev at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> A big thanks to the ones maintaining the EA builds at
> https://jdk.java.net/javafx23/.
>
> On Maven Central, a bit older build can be found (
> https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/openjfx/javafx-base/23-ea+3/). This is
> OK for me as I managed to use the builds directly from the EA site.
>
> However, I miss the AArch64 builds on the JDK page.
>
> Can there something be done to also upload the AArch64 builds? Similar to
> macOS, where also two architectures are available.
>
> WDYT?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Oliver
>
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