There has been a recent discussion on the hotspot mailing lists about what the default mode is for jtreg (othervm or samevm).

I think the following passage from the documentation is confusing:

----
Test Mode Options

When the JavaTest harness is used to run tests, two possibly different versions of the JDK are used: the JDK version used to run the harness and the JDK version used to run the test(s). The following options provide a means to specify the JDK version used to run the tests. The default is to use the same JDK version (provided by JAVA_HOME) for both the harness and the tests, and for each test to run in its own JVM.
----

Notice how the last sentence seems to begin by saying samevm mode is the default, but its really just talking about the version of the JDK used to for running the tests. The sentence ends by saying (not very explicitly) that othervm is the default mode.

Below is a change that I think clarifies this. Comments welcome!


diff --git a/src/share/classes/com/sun/javatest/regtest/i18n.properties b/src/share/classes/com/sun/javatest/regtest/i18n.properties
--- a/src/share/classes/com/sun/javatest/regtest/i18n.properties
+++ b/src/share/classes/com/sun/javatest/regtest/i18n.properties
@@ -294,10 +294,11 @@
    versions of the JDK are used: the JDK version used to run the harness \
    and the JDK version used to run the test(s). \
    The following options provide a means to specify the \
- JDK version used to run the tests. The default is to use the same JDK \
- version (provided by JAVA_HOME) for both the harness and the tests, \
- and for each test to run in its own JVM.\n
-help.mode.ovm.desc=Run every test in its own JVM. The JDK version for the \
+ JDK version used to run the tests. The default is to run each test in its own \
+ JVM (othervm) and use the same JDK \
+ version (provided by JAVA_HOME) for both the harness and the tests.\n
+help.mode.ovm.desc=Run every test in its own JVM. This is the default mode. \
+ The JDK version for the \
    tests may be specified via the -testjdk option. If \
    not provided, then the JDK version specified by the \
    JAVA_HOME environment variable will be used.